


Skyclad

by cupidsbow, Ionaonie



Series: Sky High [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Allison Argent/Isaac Lahey - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Canon-Typical Violence, Cora Hale/Lydia Martin - Freeform, F/M, Female Stiles Stilinski, Minor Stiles Stilinski/Jared, Natalie Martin/Sheriff Stilinski - Freeform, Pack Politics, Past Jennifer Blake/Derek Hale, Past Kate Argent/Derek Hale, Past Lydia Martin/Jackson Whittemore, Romance, Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura - Freeform, Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-21 13:24:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4830692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidsbow/pseuds/cupidsbow, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ionaonie/pseuds/Ionaonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Stiles doesn't enjoy the Hale summer party because she's wearing a dress (and Derek isn't there), and then both of those things stop being true. </p><p>A story about finding yourself, falling in love, and really good duck in plum sauce.</p><p>Edited to add: This story is now also available on <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/12A8uAnVCL7wPNhwfsJmACUpklct2-di3uOiVS1EePOo/edit?usp=sharing">GoogleDocs</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which Stiles battles a ferocious enemy and admits defeat

**Author's Note:**

> Waaaaaay back in 2013, cupidsbow sent ionaonie the message, “I have this TW project I've been working on for a while, and I'm kind of stuck with it. I thought maybe bouncing ideas off someone might help. Up for it? No pressure if you're busy.” And ionaonie answered, “Yes, I'm online. Totally up for bouncing ideas about Teen Wolf about :-)”
> 
> This is not that project. However, it was the start of a beautiful collaboration that currently spans around 190,000 words of fiction, and many many rants on topics ranging from Jeff Davis to high-heeled shoes. What you’re about to read is the first thing we’ve finished over the course of the last two years. No-one ever called us fast. :)
> 
> If you asked us to identify who wrote which bits, we’d be able to point at some lines with accuracy, but others not so much. They were written by both of us, as we massaged, re-wrote and came up with better ideas. Maybe we should just call ourselves ionabow and be done with it, except that name is lolarious, so no.
> 
> Anyway, here’s our first story. Enjoy it. There’s more coming out of the pipeline soon.
> 
> ~cupidsbow and ionaonie, September 2015
> 
> \--
> 
> Thanks to counting_stars_89 for the read-through and American checking.
> 
> The figure used in the cover art is sourced primarily from Butterick pattern #5800.

  
  


‘These things are evil,’ Stiles declared flatly, staring at the half of her foot that was sticking out through the sheer material of the tights Lydia was trying to force her into. 

‘It would help if you tried to slide your foot in and not ram it down the leg,’ Lydia said dryly. 

Next to Stiles, Allison had a hand over her mouth and she was shaking from a pathetic attempt not to laugh. Although whether she was laughing at Stiles’ terrible attempt at putting on tights, or Lydia’s reaction to Stiles’ terrible attempt, Stiles couldn’t say. 

In Lydia’s hand was another pair of tights and Stiles squinted at them. ‘Where did those come from?’ 

‘Do you really think that I would assume you would be able to get on pantyhose in one go?’ 

‘I feel like I should be horribly insulted by that assumption.’ She stretched out a hand. ‘But give them here and I’ll try again.’ 

This time Stiles eased her foot into the leg, careful to keep her toes pointed, so that she didn’t rip through them. By the time her foot was halfway down she was feeling confident that she’d got it in the bag, but then she felt the material snag on the toenail of her little toe and the inevitable ladder ended with her foot wedged right through the hole and, somehow, her fingers twisted in the material. She tried to pull her fingers free, but instead, she lost her balance and capsized sideways onto the bed. ‘A little help?’ 

With a snort, Allison produced a pair of nail scissors and cut Stiles free. Lydia was staring at Stiles like she couldn’t believe Stiles had managed to make it to near adulthood without killing herself. 

‘I don’t even know how that happened,’ she wailed. She didn’t even have toenails, dammit. They had to be kept short for karate. Free of her nylon trap, Stiles flopped back on the bed and groaned. ‘I don’t know how you two do it. I really don’t. I give up. I’m not wearing tights.’

‘Then we go into the bathroom and shave your legs.’ Lydia waved a pack of disposable razors in front of Stiles. ‘We came prepared.’ 

Stiles curled her legs up under her. ‘You are _not_ shaving my legs,’ she said, horrified. 

Allison handed her another pair of tights. ‘Try bunching them up so you can put your toes in the foot part first,’ she suggested. ‘Then you can pull them up.’ 

Unlike the previous two pairs, these ones were thick, granny tights and Stiles scowled. But her protest died on her tongue when she saw the quelling look Lydia was giving her. 

Bending her knee so she could rest her cheek against her leg, she wiggled her toes to the edge of the bed and bunched up the tights like Allison had suggested. ‘You know, I have put on tights before,’ she grumbled. 

‘That remains to be seen,’ Lydia said. 

As she pulled the tights up her legs, Stiles stuck her tongue out at Lydia. 

Lydia raised an eyebrow. ‘Congratulations. Now stand up before you crease the dress.’

‘I thought you chose this dress because I’ll have a hard time creasing it,’ Stiles said, standing. 

‘That’s not the point,’ Lydia said, pushing her over to the mirror where she paused. ‘Stiles, why is your mirror covered with postcards?’ 

Stiles pointed at the pinboard by her bed, and the one over her desk. ‘Overflow. And it’s hardly covered in them.’ 

‘Do you think you could clear it enough to be useable?’ 

‘If you insist.’ Stiles unwedged several and piled them on the floor, at the bottom of the mirror. ‘Better?’ 

‘Much.’ Lydia positioned her in front of the mirror. ‘Now stand still and let me look at you.’ 

‘Why do you have postcard overflow?’ Allison asked, standing and crouching down next to postcards. She picked one up and turned it over. ‘Wow. This is from Derek.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ 

As far as Stiles knew, dad didn’t read Derek’s postcards whenever he got the mail before her and she wasn’t too sure how she felt watching Allison reading the back of a postcard Derek had sent to her only. 

Allison flicked through a few others before she looked up at Stiles. ‘Are they all from Derek?’ 

‘Yeah.’ 

Lydia paused, lipstick in her hand and glanced from each pinboard to the mirror. ‘Has he even been to that many countries?’ 

‘He’s been to that many cities,’ Stiles said, eyeing the lipstick in Lydia’s hand with suspicion. 

Allison stood, postcards still in her hand and Stiles wanted to tell her to put them down, but Lydia was holding her chin with one hand and applying lipstick to Stiles’ lips with the other. 

‘I thought Derek wasn’t sending postcards to anyone.’ 

‘Nina got a few,’ Lydia said. 

‘Well, yeah,’ Allison said. ‘But that’s because your sister is terrifying and she’d have castrated Derek if he hadn’t sent her at least one.’

‘Please,’ Lydia scoffed, ‘Nina would be so much more creative than mere castration.’ She stepped back from Stiles. ‘There. What do you think?’ 

‘Guys, I’m really not sure about this this.’ Stiles eyed her reflection doubtfully. ‘In fact, I’m pretty sure this is a terrible idea.’

‘Nonsense,’ Lydia said, studying Stiles’ face critically, mascara in her hand. ‘You look gorgeous.’ 

‘But I feel ridiculous.’

‘That’s only because you’re not used to wearing dresses,’ Allison said, sorting through the pile of discarded clothes splayed across Stiles’ bed. 

It looked like a clothing bomb had gone off in her room, when in reality Allison and Lydia had raided their closets looking for clothes for Stiles. In amongst everything they’d managed to find a dress that they both agreed suited her. 

‘Yeah.’ Stiles smoothed her hands over her stomach. ‘I’m beginning to remember why I hate them.’ 

Allison picked up a couple of the rejected dresses. ‘I’m just going to hang these in your closet, Stiles, so they don’t get rumpled.’ 

‘Mi closet et su closet.’ It wasn’t like Stiles used it for anything other than storing sports equipment and her one good coat. 

‘Stand still,’ Lydia told her, smacking her hands away from where Stiles was poking at her lower lip, not used to seeing them such a deep red. ‘And now I have to reapply your lipstick. Stop it.’ 

Stiles rolled her eyes but remained still while Lydia applied mascara, fixed the lipstick and completed the finishing touches to whatever she was doing to Stiles’ face.

From downstairs there came the sounds of the front door opening, a greeting yelled to dad, and then feet rushing up the stairs. 

Erica was flushed and grinning happily when she threw open Stiles’ bedroom door. She paused in the doorway and looked Stiles up and down. ‘Holy crap, Stilinski, you clean up good.’

Stiles took in the tight green dress with the, for Erica, modest cleavage, and felt a little better about the even less revealing neckline on her own dark blue dress. ‘I’m not the only one.’ 

‘Please, I always look this good.’ She clapped her hands. ‘Are we ready?’

‘Nearly,’ Allison said, standing up. 

Lydia packed away the makeup while Allison picked up a light blue cardigan and handed it to Stiles. 

‘Well, hurry up,’ Erica said, bouncing on her feet. ‘I don’t want to be late.’ 

‘We aren’t going to be late, Erica,’ Lydia said. ‘It’s only ten o’clock, and the party goes all day. Calm down.’

‘Talia isn’t going to be be pissed if we’re five minutes late, you know,’ Stiles said, pulling on the cardigan. ‘Especially if you have me in tow. She’s had seventeen years to get used to the fact that I make everyone late. Relax.’

‘Stiles, this is my first Hale party as a wolf. I wanna make a good impression.’ 

Erica had been going to the Hale Summer Party ever since her family had moved to Beacon Hills seven years ago. She’d always planned to ask for the bite at eighteen, which she’d turned just a few days ago, but in the end her seizures had worsened, and her mom had finally signed the consent form that allowed Talia to give Erica the bite early. It hadn’t surprised Stiles one bit that Erica had taken to being a werewolf with relish. Now Erica was happy and confident and everyone saw the awesome person Stiles, Scott and their friends had always known. 

‘You do realise that once Talia’s bitten you, all impressions have been made, yeah? You don’t need to convince her of your awesomeness anymore. She’s been convinced. The proof is in the bite.’

Erica stuck her tongue out at Stiles, who, in a bout of extreme maturity stuck her tongue out as well. At least until Lydia smacked her arm and glared. 

‘What?’ 

‘As much fun as it is watching you two devolve to toddlers, you need to put these on.’ 

‘What are those?’ 

‘Shoes.’ 

‘No, those are deathtraps,’ Stiles said, staring at the strappy monstrosities Lydia was holding out to her. 

‘Stiles -’

‘No, Lydia. Seriously. Those are heels. Like, really high heels. I’m either going to fall down the stairs, go over on my ankle or accidentally kick them into someone’s face. Those are a terrible idea.’ 

‘I told you she’d say no,’ Allison said. She rummaged around on the bed and produced another pair of shoes. These ones without the lethal heel. ‘Here. Try these.’ 

Stiles took them and eyed them dubiously. ‘I can’t run in these.’

‘Why would you need to run?’ 

‘I dunno, but if I have to wear a dress, I want to err on the side of being able to run away if I need to.’

‘Stiles -’

‘Nope. I’m vetoing the shoes.’

‘You aren’t wearing your sneakers. Not with that dress,’ Lydia said. 

‘Fine. How about a pair of very flat sandals that my aunt sent me last year? I can slip them off if I have to.’

‘Let me see them.’

Stiles retrieved them from the back of her closet, finding them gathering dust under a tennis racket, and presented them to Lydia with a flourish, making Erica laugh. 

Lydia narrowed her eyes. ‘Dust them off. They’ll do.’ 

‘Which is a relief,’ Allison said. ‘I’d hate to see how a shoe-off would end between you two.’ 

Lydia looked down at her own six-inch-heel shoes and then at the ones Stiles was strapping on. ‘I think we all know there’d be no contest. Now, shall we go?’ 

‘Finally.’ Erica linked her arm through Stiles’ and dragged her out the room. ‘Derek’s back, you know.’

Stiles had been checking she had everything she needed in her bag, but her head snapped up at Erica’s words. ‘He is? When -?’

For the last four months and three days (not that she’d been counting or anything), Derek had been away travelling, putting space between him and Talia while they disagreed about what he should do now he’d finished college. Which was how Stiles had ended up with an extensive European postcard collection. 

‘Either last night or this morning. Talia was yelling at him when I was on the phone with her earlier.’ 

Stiles started down the stairs and somehow - she couldn’t say how - her foot slipped on the top step and she started to wobble. Fortunately, Erica grabbed her arm and stopped her before she fell all the way down the staircase. 

‘I thought flats were supposed to stop you taking a header down the stairs,’ Erica said. 

‘No, they just reduced the likelihood,’ Stiles told her with a grin. 

‘Well, it failed,’ Erica said. 

Lydia snorted behind them. ‘No shit.’ 

Stiles ignored the mockery thanks to long practice. ‘So, Talia was yelling at Derek, huh?’ 

‘I don’t think it was anything bad,’ Erica offered, keeping a tight grip on Stiles’ arm. ‘It sounded like she was saying something about dirty socks.’ 

‘That sounds about right,’ Stiles said. ‘Talia’s been yelling at Derek about leaving his dirty socks lying about the place for as long as I can remember.’ He’d probably been out for a run around the preserve and pulled his socks off in the kitchen, meaning to throw them in the washing machine and forgetting about it in preference to getting juice from the fridge. It was a routine that had entertained Stiles many times over the years. 

Dad wandered out from the living room. ‘You girls off to the Hales’ now?’ 

Stiles nodded. ‘Yep.’ 

He didn’t say anything about the dress she was wearing. Probably because he’d seen her look of horror when Allison and Lydia had walked in with armfuls of clothes. In fact, he’d patted her shoulder in commiseration as he beat a hasty retreat. 

‘I’ll be there after I’ve checked in with the station.’

‘You’re my ride home later tonight, dad, so let me know if you’re not going to make it.’ 

‘Not taking the Jeep?’ 

Stiles scowled at Lydia, who smiled in a manner that could be described as sweet by someone who didn’t know her, and shook her head. ‘Apparently driving the Jeep will mess up my clothes, so Allison is driving.’ 

‘Well, have fun.’ 

Stiles gave dad a quick hug and followed the others out to the car. Sliding into the back seat, Stiles was actually glad that she didn’t have to climb into the Jeep in a dress. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d have managed without flashing the neighbourhood. 

Erica joined her in the back and Stiles couldn’t help but smile at her excitement. ‘Anyone would think this was your first Hale Summer Party.’ 

‘Says the person whose heartbeat went all haywire when I mentioned Derek.’ 

Stiles scowled as her heartbeat jumped again and she could feel her face heat up. ‘He’s my best friend. Of course I’m excited about seeing him again.’ 

Lydia turned around in her seat. ‘Friend. Right.’ 

‘What does that mean?’ 

‘You know damn well what it means, Stiles. We all know you’re more than friends.’ 

‘Guys, we’re just friends,’ she protested. ‘Really.’ 

‘Uh-huh,’ Erica said, bumping shoulders with Stiles and winking. ‘A friend you want to bone.’

‘That’s so -’

‘Crude, but accurate,’ Lydia interrupted. ‘Don’t lie, Stiles. We’re your _friends_.’

‘And you know Lydia knows all about being “friends” with a Hale,’ Erica said with a wink. 

Lydia turned her icy glare on Erica, but Erica was unfazed, poking Stiles and wiggling her eyebrows. 

‘I’m not lying.’

‘Even if Erica wasn’t now a werewolf, we would all know that’s a lie,’ Allison said, glancing in the rearview mirror at Stiles. 

‘Even if it is, I’m not talking to any of you about it.’ 

The crash and burn of Scott and Allison’s own freshman year romance was still fresh in her mind, even if it wasn’t in anyone else’s. Starring in a badly written sequel wasn’t really on her to-do list. Especially if it meant losing everything she already had with Derek. 

‘Not even about the fact that Derek’s been sending you postcards?’ Lydia asked sweetly. 

Erica squealed and Stiles flinched away from the sound. It looked like everything was dialled up to a ten with Erica for the day. ‘He’s been sending you postcards?’ 

‘I think it’s safe to say that we’ve established that Derek’s been sending me postcards,’ Stiles gritted out, glaring at the back of Lydia’s head. ‘What’s the big deal?’ 

‘You mean other than the fact that he hasn’t been sending them to anyone else?’ Erica asked. ‘Because I know he sent one to the house when he first got to France. And he’s sent a few to Cora -’

‘And Nina,’ Lydia injected. 

‘And Isaac said Cameron got one,’ Allison added. 

Which made Stiles wonder if Allison and Isaac had got over themselves, and were finally dating, or if they were both still dithering about, worrying about upsetting Scott. She knew Isaac was lower on the pack pecking order than Scott, and that dating Allison after Scott might feel weird to his wolf instincts, but Scott was happily dating Kira and would probably be really upset if he knew that he was a stumbling block for them. If Cameron was at the party, Stiles might try her hand at getting him to have a word with Isaac again. If there was anyone Isaac might listen to, it was Cameron. Stiles kind of envied how close they were, and wondered what it would be like to have a sibling who always had your back.

‘But other than that Derek’s been on radio silence, Stiles,’ Erica said. ‘You know that. Laura’s been like a wolf with a sore head about it, so I think it’s fair to say that this is a big deal.’

‘And yet, I still don’t want to talk about it.’ 

‘Oh, Stiles, come on,’ Erica cajoled. ‘Don’t be like that.’ 

‘Not. Talking. About it.’ She bopped Erica on the nose, sniggering when Erica recoiled slightly, a look of surprise on her face. ‘Understand?’ 

‘I believe Stiles isn’t taking questions on the subject of Derek Hale at this time,’ Erica said, rubbing her nose. 

‘I’m glad we got that sorted,’ Stiles said, settling back in the seat and watching the houses go by until they thinned out and became trees. 

As Allison turned onto the track that led to the Hale house, Stiles pulled at the hem of the dress. It was strange, unnerving even, to have material brushing her knees. It made her feel undressed and vulnerable. But along with feeling as though her skin was on all wrong, there was a kind of thrill to dressing in a way she didn’t normally. Although, if she’d known Derek was back, she probably would have refused the dress. The idea of Derek seeing her in it made her feel weird, especially as it would be the first thing he’d see her in after so long apart.


	2. In which dicks make a surprising appearance at the party

The Hale house appeared around the bend, looking warm and welcoming as always. It was already busy, people spilling out onto the lawn. Family, friends and allies came from across the country to attend and all the hotels and motels in and around town loved the extra business. 

To the side of the house was a long row of cars and one of the cousins - David, Stiles thought - was directing people where to park. 

After he pointed Allison to a spot under a shady tree, he waved to Erica and Stiles, grinning broadly. 

As soon as they had parked, Erica virtually bounced out of the car. While Lydia stepped out of the car with more decorum, the gleam in her eyes gave away her excitement. 

‘Hurry up, Stiles,’ Erica yelled, slamming her door shut. 

With a sigh, Stiles climbed out of the car and followed the others toward the house. She could hear the shrieks and shouts from some of the kids playing around on the back lawn, and smell the smoke from the just-lit barbecue. 

Talia and her husband Mark were waiting on the porch, greeting guests as they arrived. Erica hurried up the steps, ahead of all of them, hugging first Talia and then Mark. 

‘Dad said he’d been here in a bit,’ Stiles told Talia, stepping in for her own hug. 

Talia nodded. ‘You look lovely, Stiles.’ 

She glanced self-consciously down at the dress. ‘Uh, thanks.’ 

‘And also early,’ Mark said, giving her a hug. ‘You’re usually fashionably late.’

‘There’s nothing fashionable about me,’ Stiles said. ‘But some people -’ she rolled her eyes in Erica’s direction ‘- were overly eager to get here.’ 

‘Well, we Hales are difficult to resist,’ Mark said, winking at her before he turned to greet the next round of guests. 

Talia laughed. ‘Laura and Cora are around somewhere and I’m sure you’ve already been told Derek’s back.’

‘Yes, I’d heard,’ she said, trying to evade Erica’s elbow. ‘Quit it,’ she said, slapping at Erica. ‘Your sharp elbows are lethal weapons.’

‘Come on,’ Erica said, grabbing hold of Stiles’ hand. ‘I can see Boyd.’

‘Save me,’ Stiles mouthed to Talia, pouting when she shook her head in amusement and turned to the people Mark was now talking to. 

Erica was relentless in moving through the crowd, managing to barge her way along the veranda and through the French doors, and into the Hales’ enormous lounge. Now that she was a werewolf it was easier for her to not bump into anyone, unlike Stiles, who was just about managing to avoid everyone herself when she careened off a random body in the crowd, Erica’s hand slipping away. 

Steadying herself, she looked up and groaned. 

Jackson was standing there, sneer already well in place. He looked her up and down, taking in the make-up, the dress, the granny tights, and the sandals, so she wasn’t particularly surprised when he said, ‘Bozo the clown called, Stilinski. He wants his face paint back.’ 

Stiles smiled sweetly at him, because there was no way she was going to let something Jackson said to her land a hit. ‘He’s your new BFF, is he? I guess clown school finally paid off for you then.’

Jackson was still eyeing her sandals like they personally offended him. ‘It’s a pathetic attempt, but it might be enough to convince Hale to pity-fuck you.’ 

‘Go suck a lemon, Jackson,’ Cora said, pushing past him. She grabbed hold of Stiles’ hand and gave a supportive squeeze. 

Throwing them both a look of disgust, Jackson stomped off. 

‘Ignore him,’ Cora said, dragging her out of the lounge, and into a comparatively quiet corner of the kitchen. ‘The second he saw Derek he levelled up on asshole.’ 

‘I didn’t know it was possible to go higher than a level ten.’

‘Well, you know Jackson. He’s an overachiever when it comes to being a dick, especially if he misguidedly thinks it’ll score him points with the pack.’ 

Stiles laughed, although it was halfhearted at best. She didn’t like the idea that she could be used as leverage against Derek. Especially by someone like Jackson, who wasn’t even technically pack. It reminded her how angry she kept getting every time Talia dismissed the questions about pack hierarchy she’d been trying to ask all summer. 

‘And can I just say wow.’ Cora held Stiles’ hands out and looked her up and down. ‘You’re in an honest to god dress. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen you in a dress since we were kids.’ 

Scott was her best bro, but Cora and Stiles had been best friends since forever, terrorising preschool, elementary and middle school together, years before Scott and Melissa came to town. 

‘Are you kidding me? Lydia put me in granny stockings. I feel like I’m in drag.’

Cora laughed. ‘Hey, some of my best friends wear drag, and you’re at least as fabulous as any of the Ladies at Jungle.’ 

Stiles hummed noncommittally. 

Cora narrowed her eyes Stiles’ rejection of her compliment, but she didn’t say anything, instead giving her a rather unexpected hug. ‘Derek’s around here somewhere.’ 

‘So I’ve been told,’ Stiles said. ‘Several times.’ She sighed, waiting for the teasing to commence, but Cora didn’t seem interested in teasing her. 

‘Maybe he’ll beat up Jackson for you.’

This time Stiles’ laugh felt more enthusiastic. ‘Does he need an excuse for that?’

‘Not really,’ Cora said. ‘But seriously, you should go and find him. I haven’t seen him in a while but people keep asking him if it’s true that the French really eat frogs’ legs and snails.’ 

‘Oh boy.’ 

Derek wasn’t really a fan of stupid questions. He was probably in a foul mood.

‘I know. Makes him all cranky-pants. But enough about my dear brother,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘Do you know where Lydia is?’ 

‘Oh, I see how it is. You’re just looking for intel on your girlfriend.’ 

‘That, or I’m multi-tasking. Looking for my girlfriend, rescuing you from Jackson, complimenting you and making sure you know Derek’s around here somewhere, all at the same time.’ 

‘You are truly a genius,’ Stiles said flatly. ‘I’m in awe. Teach me your ways, oh great one.’

‘Shut up.’

‘I think Allison went looking for Isaac and Lydia went with her to look, well, for you.’ 

‘Right.’ Cora grabbed her hand again. ‘We’re going to find them. I haven’t seen Lydia for nearly an entire day and I need to kiss her.’ 

‘Do I have to,’ Stiles asked, dragging her feet. ‘You’re all paired up and being all lovey dovey.’ 

‘Not everyone’s paired up,’ Cora said, pulling her through the crowd. 

‘Like who? And don’t say Danny because I’m not his type and he’ll definitely have a date for today.’ 

‘I wasn’t going to say Danny.’ Cora flashed her a quick smile over her shoulder. ‘I was going to say Jackson.’ 

‘Oh my god, you did not,’ exclaimed Stiles, punching Cora’s shoulder. ‘That’s just ewww.’ 

Cora laughed. ‘I never said you’d like my suggestion.’ 

‘I need all the brain bleach in the world,’ Stiles moaned. 

An hour later and Stiles had a Coke in her hand and was hiding in a corner of the lounge in the vain hope that no-one would notice her there. Slowly her friends had disappeared - Danny, Jackson and Kira going to play the lacrosse game in the middle of the back lawn, which Stiles would totally join if she wasn't terrified she’d wrecked the dress; Scott followed, Stiles waving off his apologetic look; she’d seen Cora and Lydia sneak upstairs; Erica and Boyd had gone walking outside, holding hands; Isaac and Allison had gone to the kitchen for drinks and not returned and Stiles could only hope they were in the middle of finally admitting they were seriously crushing on each other. 

Usually none of this would bother Stiles, but this party wasn’t as fun as the others. People who had never paid her much attention in previous years were now seeking her out, but spent most of their time either talking to her boobs or glancing down at them every couple of seconds like they might vanish. It made her feel on display for all the wrong reasons and any enjoyment she’d gotten from the dress earlier had fizzled away and died. She really wished she hadn’t let her friends talk her into it. 

Stiles was so lost in her head that she didn’t realise someone was standing next to her until they snapped their fingers in her face. 

‘Hey!’ she twisted around, ‘snapping your fingers in someone’s - _Derek_.’ She stood there gaping at him. 

He was wearing jeans and a Henley pulled up to his elbows and was looking far more relaxed than when he’d hugged her goodbye at the airport. She still couldn’t believe that Talia had forgiven her part in Derek’s escape to backpack around Europe. It looked like it had done him some good though. 

Raising an eyebrow he stuck out his hand and they immediately fell into the complicated handshake they’d made up several summers ago.

When they were done Derek broke into one of his big, genuine smiles. ‘Do I get a hug or are you too cool for that now?’

Stiles shook her head and stepped into his embrace, taking in a deep breath of his scent and doing so a lot more subtly than the sniffing Derek was making no pretence at hiding.

‘The only place I could ever be cool is some weird mirror universe,’ she mumbled into his shoulder. 

Derek laughed, his arms tightening around her. 

When they finally broke apart, Derek said, ‘I called your name a couple of times, but you were in your head somewhere.’ 

‘Yeah, uh, sorry about that. But, hey.’ She bounced on the balls of her feet. ‘You’re back!’ 

‘And your powers of observation are as strong as ever,’ Derek said. 

'Shut up. My powers of observation rock. Especially for a human, and don't you forget it.'

'So noted,' Derek said, failing utterly at hiding the way his smile turned fond. ‘Why are you hiding back here? Usually you’re right in the middle of things, causing mayhem.’ 

Stiles shrugged. 

Derek stared at her for a few seconds before he gestured towards the stairs with his chin. ‘Come on, we’ve gotta get out of this place.’

Stiles was unable to hold back her smile. ‘If it’s the last thing we ever do.’ She paused. ‘You giant dork.’

‘You’re calling _me_ a dork?’

‘Oh, I’m sorry. Are you too cool for that now? Did all those Europeans manage to smoosh a bit of culture into you?’

Derek huffed in amusement, turning and pushing his way through the crowd, Stiles making sure to grab the back of his Henley so they didn’t get separated. It amused Stiles how people just melted out of his path, but she ignored all the knowing looks thrown her way the closer they got to the stairs. They hadn’t looked at her like that the year before, when Derek had dragged her into his room, to show her his latest kite design - a dragon from Manipur. Of course, then she’d been wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a faded _Battlestar Galactica_ t-shirt. Nevermind that it had been an old one of Derek’s that she’d stolen. 

He carried on up the stairs, Stiles letting go of his Henley once they were clear of the crowd.

‘Ignore the mess,’ Derek said, the tips of his ears going adorably red. 

The familiar room was neat as a pin, as usual, except for a raggedy duffle bag on the bed, full of clothes.

Stiles snorted. ‘Dude, you’ve seen my room. This isn’t even in the realm of being messy.’

‘Stiles, your room is a natural disaster.’

‘Rude.’ She crossed her arms and watched Derek rummage through his chest of drawers. ‘Uh, what are you doing?’ 

‘Looking for...’ Derek mumbled. ‘Ah, here we are.’ He turned and before Stiles could see what he was holding, he threw it at her face. She caught it and then realised she was holding a pair of her old cut-off jeans and one of his t-shirts.

She held the jeans up in front of her. ‘They’ve been here all this time? I thought I’d lost them. Or dad had thrown them out.’ 

Derek crossed his arms. ‘Well, you can stop blaming your dad now.’ 

‘Good to know. But that doesn’t explain why you’re giving them to me now.’

‘I thought you might want to put them on.’

‘Oh, you did, did you?’ Just because he could probably tell that wearing a dress was making her feel all hinky, didn’t mean that he had any right to make her feel even more weird about it. ‘I can wear a dress if I want to.’

Derek shifted uncomfortably. ‘If you want to wear the dress, wear it. You just seem to be hating it.’ 

She floundered for a moment, closing her mouth when no words were forthcoming. Walking over to Derek’s bed she dropped the clothes next to his bag and pulled off the cardigan. 

‘It was Lydia and Allison’s idea,’ she told him as he collapsed onto the chair by his desk and turned around, picking up the mail waiting for him. ‘And a truly terrible one. Why did I give in and agree to let them dress me?’ 

It was only when the dress and tights - still miraculously intact - were pooled at her feet and she was practically naked that she realised that the churning in her stomach was her feeling weird about Derek being in the room while she changed. Which made no sense. She’d been changing in and out of swimsuits and pajamas for years around Derek without it being strange. 

Her eyes snapped to check what Derek was doing, but he was acting the same, just sorting through papers on his desk. So maybe it was just her who thought there was something strange going on. 

Grabbing the cut-offs, she was weirdly relieved she’d won the underwear war and was wearing her usual boy shorts and not the skimpy panties Lydia had tried to force her into. She felt much better when she fastened the button of her jeans. 

‘Lydia and Allison are pretty terrifying when they have their minds set,’ Derek said, throwing some opened envelopes in the trash. ‘If you had to give in to them on something, there are worse things than a dress. There’s no shame in picking your battles with those two.’ 

Stiles paused while shaking out Derek’s t-shirt. ‘Okay. You make a good point.’ 

‘I know.’

‘Modest, too,’ she said, pulling the t-shirt over her head. 

‘Always have been.'

'Yeah. Right.'

'Shut up. Are you decent yet?’ 

‘I’m never decent,’ she told him, voice muffled. 

‘Don’t I know it,’ he muttered. 

‘But I am now fully clothed,’ she told him, pulling the t-shirt down over her stomach. 

He spun the chair around and looked up at her. ‘Better?’ 

She nodded. ‘Easier to play lacrosse like this, too.’ 

‘I missed playing lacrosse. We should do that soon.’

‘I think I could go for a game if you twisted my arm.’ She picked up the dress, putting it on Derek’s bed with the cardigan. ‘I need to get a hanger for that before Allison or Lydia see.’ 

‘I think we can manage that.’ 

He didn’t get up, so Stiles swatted the back of his head on her way to his closet. ‘Don’t strain yourself,’ she told him, opening the door. 

Inside were lots of empty hangers. Hangers Stiles assumed were for the clothes still in the bag on the bed. She was about to grab one when something in the corner caught her attention. Abandoning the hangers for the time being, she rummaged around some of the junk he was keeping - she could think of no earthly reason he needed to keep the game of Mousetrap they’d defaced into a Jumanji knockoff or Cora’s giant stuffed Elmo - until her hand closed around the thing that had caught her eye. 

‘Oh my god, how do you still have this monstrosity?’ 

It was a mug that she’d made in school when she’d been about nine. It was lopsided - Stiles not having the attention span to concentrate enough to make all the sides equal - and had what was supposed to be a black wolf on one side. Really, it was just a black blob with two pricks of gold in it. The words _What do you call a lost wolf?_ were written on the other side. The answer - _A Where-wolf_ \- was written on the bottom of the mug and only revealed once the cup was empty. She had thought it the height of humour when she’d been nine. 

‘Careful with that,’ Derek said, leaping out of his seat and rushing over to grab it off her, cradling it protectively against his chest, like he expected her to demand it back. 

‘Why do you still have it?’ 

Derek scowled. ‘It’s mine and I like it.’

‘But it’s terrible. I wanted it to be a lurid purple colour, but I did something wrong and it’s that horrible grey colour. Not to mention the fact that you can only have half a mug of anything in it because of how one side collapsed.’ 

‘But you gave it to me.’ 

She remembered when she’d given it to Derek, he’d actually used it for years, only packing it away when he’d gone to college because he hadn’t wanted it to get broken. Talia had told her, several years later, that after the Kate debacle, the first time she’d seen Derek laugh had been when he’d been staring at the bottom of that mug. So maybe it wasn’t so weird that he’d hung onto it.

‘What else do you have in here?’ The box the mug had been in had a roll of art paper sticking out of it and something that looked suspiciously like a badly knitted scarf. She wondered if Derek had kept every dumb present she’d given him over the years. ‘Please tell me you didn’t keep any of the pasta paintings I did for you when I was three.’

‘Mind your own business,’ Derek told her, cheekbones going slightly pink, and still clutching the mug. 

‘You totally kept everything, didn’t you?’ When Derek didn’t answer, her grin widened. ‘Don’t feel bad, I totally kept everything you’ve given me. Hell, I’ve still got the ticket stub of the first movie my mom let you take me to.’ 

Laura had had to drop them off and pick them up because at thirteen, Derek hadn’t been close to driving. Stiles remembered being so completely over the moon that Derek hadn’t been embarrassed being seen out with a hyperactive kid who had the attention span of a gnat. 

‘You didn’t stop fidgeting until I pulled you into my lap.’ 

Stiles stuck out her tongue, because there wasn’t really much she could say to that, seeing as how it was completely true. It wasn’t her fault he’d been far comfier than the seats.

For a moment Stiles was tempted to try and see which of her masterpieces Derek had kept, but decided she was better off not knowing which had survived over the years. So while Derek pushed the mystery box further to the back of the closet and further away from any attempt Stiles might make to get hold of it, she grabbed a hanger and hung Allison’s dress up on the back of the door. 

Much to Stiles’ amusement, Derek took the mug with him to the desk, and Stiles followed. ‘Do you still have some jellybeans stashed in your desk somewhere? Or did Cora eat them all while you were away?’ 

‘Cora.’

‘Figures,’ she sighed. 

‘So, come on,’ Derek said dropping back into the chair. ‘Tell me about your exciting summer.’ He picked up a pen and did a little drumroll.

Stiles sat on the edge of the desk and kicked her feet. ‘Boring. Mostly. Everyone’s been pairing up and it’s been the summer of third-wheeling.’ Which was putting it mildly. ‘Though, uh -’

‘- though, uh, what?’ 

‘I’ve been thinking of colleges. Where I might want to go. What subject I might want to do.’

Derek stopped playing with the pen and sat up straighter, eyes bright with interest. ‘Yeah? What have you been thinking?’ 

‘I’ve been thinking of in-state versus out-of-state colleges.’

‘Your mom went to Columbia, didn’t she?’ Derek said. 

Stiles nodded. ‘Yeah. I always thought it’d be kinda cool to follow in her footsteps, you know?’ 

‘But?’ 

This was what Stiles had missed; being able to talk to Derek about anything without judgement. It was so easy to talk things out with him.

‘But I don’t know if I want to go all the way to the other side of the country. At least, not now. Maybe if I did an MA. But right now, I think I want to stay in California.’

‘Huh. I thought you’d be chomping at the bit for a big adventure.’ 

‘There’s always the summers for that.’ Stiles bit her lip. ‘The thing is, I’m not very good on my own, and I think I’ll focus better on my studies if I stay here. I don’t know what dad’ll say if I tell him, though. He’s pretty set on me going to Columbia.’ 

‘Stiles, your dad will just want you to be happy wherever you go.’ 

‘I know that, but -’

Derek shook his head and wrapped his hand around her fingers, giving them a squeeze. 

‘I might be worrying about nothing,’ she conceded. That was another thing she’d missed while he’d been away. Derek had a way of getting her out of her own head when she got lost in it and talking her through her freakouts and panic attacks. 

‘What do you want to major in?’ Derek asked, giving her fingers one final squeeze before letting go. 

Stiles shrugged. ‘I’m not entirely sure, but I was thinking maybe something like conservation or renewable energy.’

Derek smiled. ‘That sounds like you. So, come on, that can’t be all you did while I was away.’ 

‘Well, uh, there was one other thing.’

‘Yeah? What’s that?’ 

‘I’m pretty sure I ended up as a contender for worst date ever.’

Derek’s eyes snapped to hers. ‘You went on a date?’ 

‘Kind of. Like, after you left everyone - well, everyone apart from dad and Cora - kept going on about how I’ve never dated anyone and then my friend, Jared, asked me out and I thought, “Why not”, you know? It might be nice.’

‘And was it?’ Derek asked. He clicked the pen a couple of times, then realised how annoying it was and dropped in on the desk, and crossed his arms instead.

Stiles gave him a judging look. ‘Worried that you weren’t there to save me if it went all wrong?’ 

Derek glowered at her and Stiles grinned. ‘I’ve missed this.’ 

‘What? Annoying me?’ 

‘No. Well, yes. But your glower.’ She ran a finger along his brow. ‘No-one glowers quite like you do.’

‘How did that sound like both a compliment and an insult?’

‘I practice on Scott a lot.’

Derek huffed in amusement. ‘So, this date of yours? What happened to put it in the running for worst date ever?’ 

Stiles shrugged. ‘Okay, it wasn’t _quite_ that bad. I like Jared. The movie was good, and we had a nice time, mostly. He’s sweet and funny and my babble didn’t seem to put him off. At least, not until he realised you’re in most of my stories, and I think that made him really nervous, because he thinks you’re a big cheese for some misguided reason. Anyway, we’d eaten _a lot_ of popcorn during the movie and he said you had murder eyebrows and something about how they’d never find his body, and then puked all over my really nice sneakers.’

Derek made a noise a lot like he was swallowing laughter. 

‘Hey!’ she smacked his chest. ‘Be nice. Your resting face makes a lot of people very nervous. Don’t even try and tell me that you don’t know that or that you don’t take advantage of it every chance you get.’

Derek quirked one of the aforementioned eyebrows at her, but Stiles ignored him. 

‘Anyway, I felt terrible about it. Terrible and icky. I had to drive home barefoot and the sneakers were totally unsalvageable.’

‘I’m sorry about your sneakers.’ 

‘Me too. They were my favourites.’ Stiles grinned ruefully. ‘Needless to say, we didn’t manage a second date after that.’ 

‘ _Shocking_ ,’ Derek said, not sounding at all sympathetic; some best friend he was. ‘That’s not the worst date I’ve ever heard of, though. I don’t think you’re doomed to a lonely existence as a cat lady just yet.’ 

Given that Derek’s worst date consisted of being magically roofied and nearly ritually sacrificed by his dark druid ex-girlfriend, it could be said he knew a little something about bad dates. That didn’t mean he got to mock her and poor Jared, though. 

‘Your complete lack of sympathy is noted, Derek. Just for that I think I might suddenly feel the need to find out what, exactly, you have stashed away in your closet.’ 

‘Don’t you even think about it,’ Derek said, the smug look wiped off his face. 

‘I’m definitely thinking about it.’ 

Derek eyed her thoughtfully. ‘You’re still ticklish, right?’ 

‘Oh my god. Don’t you dare. We have an agreement, remember?’

Derek grinned. ‘I’ll probably get my memory back when you promise not to go anywhere near the closet.’

‘You’re no fun.’ She stood up from her perch on the desk.

‘Hey.’ Derek swivelled around in the chair and caught her wrist as she stepped away, pulling her back in close. ‘You never did tell me how much trouble you got into with mom after you helped with my escape.’ 

All she had done was drive Derek to the airport, because she couldn’t stand to see him so miserable thanks to the endless fights with Talia about what he should be doing with the rest of his life. ‘I didn’t. Not really.’

‘Huh?’

‘Weird, right? She just stared at me until I started to squirm and then said “I should have known,” and that was it. I didn’t really feel like questioning it too much at the time.’ 

‘Good call,’ Derek said. 

‘I thought so too.’ She nudged his knee with hers. ‘You don’t seem overly eager to rejoin the party.’ 

Derek rubbed his temple. ‘Still jetlagged and I keep getting asked the same questions over and over again.’ 

‘It’s almost as if you spent the last four months abroad, didn’t bother with mass emailing or keeping a blog or even just plain old Facebook and now everyone wants to hear about your wild adventures.’ 

‘Whatever. I don’t know why you’re complaining. You got emails.’ 

‘I know. Which is why I’m not asking all kinds of questions about what I know are your not-so-wild adventures. What would people say if they knew you’d spent all your time exploring castles, traipsing around every museum and art gallery you saw and going on long walks? Not to mention those daredevil kite competitions you entered.’

‘You know, you should be nice to me, otherwise you’re not getting any of your presents,’ Derek grumbled. 

‘Presents?’ Stiles perked up at that. ‘As in more than one?’ 

‘I misspoke. So very profoundly.’

‘Where are they?’ She pointed at the bag on his bed. ‘In there?’

Before Derek could stop her, Stiles was falling on the bed and trying to pull the bag towards her. ‘Holy crap, Derek. Did you cram the entirety of Europe and the kitchen sink in here?’ She flicked the label on the bag strap. ‘No wonder you needed the werewolf-only baggage handlers’ sticker. This would cripple a human. Crush them into paste.’ 

Derek smacked her hands away and started digging around in the bag himself. ‘You’ll mess everything up.’ 

Stiles wriggled around until she was sitting cross-legged, resting her elbows on her knees. ‘You mean you don’t want me going through your dirty laundry.’ 

When Derek glared at her, Stiles held up her hands in surrender. ‘Fine. I can be patient.’

Derek snorted. ‘You’re about as patient as a toddler offered chocolate cake.’

Stiles was about to protest the slur against her good name when Derek produced a -

‘Is that a Nessie snowglobe?’ she asked delightedly. 

‘It is,’ he said, handing it over. 

Giving it a shake, she watched all the snow swirling around. ‘Oh my god, I love it.’

Nessie herself was painted bright green and wearing a hat of lurid colours, and Stiles was fairly certain tartan didn’t come in those colours. Bright pink and purple thistles decorated the base of the globe and in the most horrific shade of yellow was the word ‘Nessie’. She couldn’t wait to get it back to her room to find the perfect place for it. 

When the snow had all settled she shook it again. ‘This is one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.’ 

‘I knew you’d like it.’

‘Well, duh. Now, what else do you have in there?’ 

‘What makes you think there’s anything else?’ 

‘Because you’ve got that look on your face.’

With a grin Derek produced a bunch of tulle, which shook out into an epically awful bridal veil. The headband was pink, and while the veil was white, it was covered in tiny embroidered penises in a perfectly matched shade of candy pink. Snatching it from him, she turned it over in her hands. ‘Who would mass produce something like this?’ 

Derek did his best to look nonchalant. ‘Very popular with tourists in Amsterdam’s Red Light District.’ 

Stiles scoffed, flicking the veil at him like a pompom for added emphasis. ‘Please, there’s no way that means what you’re implying. You’re not that cool about sex. Don’t even front. You probably found this in the gift shop of some crumbling old church.’ Stiles stroked the veil reverently. ‘Is it called The Maria? Was it blessed by a priest?’ 

‘Stiles!’ Derek said, but without any real dismay, as he knew her far too well. He shrugged. ‘I found it near De Oude Kerk, in one of the tourist shops off the canal. I figured you’d get a kick out of it.’ 

‘Disappointing,’ Stiles said. ‘I was hoping against hope for a lurid adventure.’ She slid it into her hair and pulled the veil down over her face. ‘Does it suit me?’ 

Derek pushed the band back so there was less danger of it falling and hitting her nose, his hand lingering in her hair. ‘There, perfect,’ he murmured. 

His eyes dropped to her lips and Stiles remembered she was still wearing lipstick. With Derek’s gaze on her, it really did feel like clown paint, and she had to stop herself from reaching over and grabbing a couple of tissues to wipe it all off in a big smeary mess. Wanting to pull Derek’s attention away from the makeup, she cast around for a distraction. 

‘Hang on, are those feathers in your bag?’ 

‘What?’ Derek’s gaze snapped from her mouth back up to her eyes.

She reached into the bag and pulled at the ball of feathers, and it wasn’t long till Stiles realised it was way more than a ball of feathers. ‘Hey, you bought yourself a feather boa.’ 

It was long and red and Stiles threw one end of it around Derek’s shoulders. ‘It suits you.’

Derek stroked along the feathers. ‘Do you think?’ 

‘Absolutely.’ 

After that Derek pulled out a purple, glittery Eiffel Tower keyring, which Stiles was going to add to her car keys the second she got home; a tiny pair of china clogs with windmills and tulips on them (Derek was very proud of how he’d managed to incorporate so many cliches into one present, and honestly, so was Stiles); a Spanish dancing doll; a leaning tower of Pisa pizza cutter; a Vlad the Impaler teaspoon, and more. 

By the time he finished there was a pile of some of the tackiest and most hilarious tourist crap that Stiles had ever seen. It was glorious. 

Rocking up onto her knees, Stiles threw her arms around Derek. ‘I love it all. You have the best worst taste.’ 

One of Derek’s arms wrapped around her waist and he hugged her close. ‘I couldn’t think of anyone else who would appreciate how horrendous all this is. You would have loved some of the tourist traps I ended up in.’ 

Stiles sighed. ‘Still so jealous.’ She picked up the end of the boa not wrapped around Derek. ‘I gotta get me one of these.’ She threw the end around her neck. ‘Although I’m not sure red is my colour.’ 

‘Red is definitely your colour,’ Derek said. 

‘You think?’ 

‘Lydia and Allison wouldn’t let you keep wearing your little red riding hoodie if it wasn’t.’ 

Stiles rested her forehead on Derek’s shoulder, giggling at that joke, which never got old. ‘Your mom hates that hoodie so damn much.’ 

Humming in agreement, Derek pressed his nose to the hinge of her jaw, scenting her there, before rubbing his cheek gently against hers. 

Stiles sighed and relaxed further against Derek. Just as she was wondering if they really had to go back to the party and if anyone would notice if they stayed in Derek’s room, the door banged open, making her jump. 

‘A-ha!’ Jackson barged in, a gleeful look on his face. ‘Caught in the act, assholes. I win the pool.’ 

Derek growled. Entering another wolf’s room without permission was the height of rudeness. Not that Jackson had ever cared. Derek flashed his eyes at Jackson, who wasn’t even smart enough to turn tail and run. 

‘Congratulations,’ Stiles drawled. ‘You caught us in the act… of playing dress-ups.’ She waved the end of the boa at Jackson. ‘What’s the pool for that? A night with the Ladies at the Jungle?’ 

Jackson scowled, which was a promising sign. Maybe he’d leave. All Stiles wanted was a few hours with Derek so they could get back into the rhythm of being them. Even with all the emails, postcards, and the odd Skype call, being apart from Derek had been hard; harder than when he’d been at college. Back then, there had been no time difference and he had come home most weekends. She didn’t think it was too much to ask for a bit of alone time, and she sure as hell didn’t know what idiot had sent Jackson to find them (after mentally dubbing them an idiot, she really hoped it hadn’t been Talia).

‘Kinky, Stilinski. If you two wanted some alone time, you should have tied a sock to the handle.’

‘Hard to put a sock on the doorknob when you’re still wearing it,’ Stiles said. If she got flustered every time Jackson made some shitty innuendo about her and Derek, she would have been in a perpetual tizz for the last ten years. One of her deepest regrets in life was meeting Jackson when she was seven. 

‘What do you want?’ Derek gritted out. 

‘Nothing you’ve got,’ Jackson said with a sneer. ‘The Sheriff has arrived and was looking for Stilinski. Laura sent me to find her.’ 

Everyone knew that Derek didn’t really like Jackson, so why Laura had thought it was a good idea to send Jackson to look for either of them, Stiles couldn’t really say. It just seemed to be another in a long line of bizarre choices Laura had been making recently. 

‘You found her and told her,’ Derek snapped. ‘So get out.’

‘Fine,’ Jackson huffed. ‘No need to get all snippy. I thought running off to Europe was supposed to have made you less bitchy.’ 

Derek’s entire body thrummed with energy, and Stiles was quite sure that if she wasn’t wrapped around him, Derek would already have Jackson slammed up against the wall, his claws digging into Jackson’s throat. 

A hand clamped onto Jackson’s shoulder, making him gasp and Stiles wasn’t exactly surprised to see Peter appear in the doorway. ‘Why, Jackson, I didn’t know you were looking for a threesome. Stiles and Derek are painfully vanilla, I’m afraid, but I’m sure Daphne and I can work something out if you’re so inclined.’ 

For once Jackson didn’t say anything, just stayed very still, like he thought that if he didn’t draw attention to himself, Peter would forget he was there. That didn’t happen, Peter pulling him back out of the room. ‘No? Go and find someone more idiotic than yourself to plague, then.’ 

With one last horrified look at Peter, Jackson fled back down the stairs. 

Peter had never been Stiles’ favourite Hale, but right now he’d definitely earned several Brownie points. Derek looked like he agreed, his expression torn between grudging gratitude and disbelief that Jackson could be so out of touch with pack dynamics.

‘You’re probably right,’ Peter said, settling against the doorframe, despite the fact that neither of them had said anything. ‘The likelihood of there being anyone here who is stupider than Jackson is highly doubtful.’ 

‘What do you want, Uncle Peter?’ Derek asked. 

‘I just wanted to congratulate you on your bride to be and her sartorial choices.’ He waved at the veil. ‘Very fetching.’ 

Stiles pushed the veil back over her head, so that she could glare at Peter without any impediment, ignoring the way her face heated up. While nothing Jackson said really fazed her, Peter could make her blush by tone alone and it annoyed her no end. 

‘Go away, Peter,’ Derek said, rubbing a hand over his face. 

‘Would if I could, dear nephew, but Jackson was right about one thing. Stiles’ father did arrive here a while ago and is wondering why he hasn’t found his daughter yet. I could send him up here, if you like. To your bedroom.’ 

Derek glared at Peter, who was feigning polite disinterest while laughing at them on the inside in that infuriating way of his. Stiles realised that unless she did something they would probably continue their staring competition until Talia and dad came looking for everyone. And that would be awful. 

She grabbed the wrist that had Derek’s watch on and whistled when she saw the time. ‘Oh, wow, one-forty. No wonder I’m hungry. Dad must have been here for ages.’ 

‘A while, yes,’ Peter agreed. ‘When I left him with Daphne they were comparing service tattoos and trash talking each other’s branch of the military.’ 

‘Dude, how did you bag such an awesome wife?’ Stiles asked, climbing off the bed. 

‘Charisma,’ Peter said at the exact same time Derek said, ‘Brain-washing.’ 

‘I’ll go and inform everyone of your imminent arrival,’ Peter said, pushing off the wall. 

‘Fantastic,’ Stiles muttered. Now her dad was going to give her the look that suggested he was just waiting for her to declare that she and Derek were together, despite all her protests to the contrary.


	3. In which Stiles is hand-fed delicacies under trying circumstances

Derek led her out the room, hand low on her back. 

‘Hey, are Cameron and Nina coming this year?’ Stiles asked, as they walked down the stairs. ‘I haven’t seen them yet.’ 

Not many people took the time to get past Derek’s prickly exterior, but Cameron Lahey and Nina Martin both had and Stiles liked them for it, even if she wasn’t exactly sure they liked her back. 

‘Nina’s working on some big project and can’t leave LA for anything less than the zombie apocalypse.’ 

‘Please, Nina would clean up zombies like a boss.’ 

Derek obviously found that mental picture amusing. ‘She’ll love you forever when I tell her that. And Cameron’s plane out of Chicago was grounded because of weather, so he won’t get here until later tonight at the earliest.’ 

‘That sucks.’ 

‘Yeah, but Cameron and I are going to drive down to LA and see Nina when her project is finished. I promised Nina I’d show her all my photos in person.’ 

‘I think you might be giving Lydia a ride, too.’

Derek paused half-way down the stairs and pulled an epic grumpy-face. ‘I’m going to kill Cameron. He never knows how to say no to Nina.’ 

Stiles laughed. ‘Okay, you call up Nina and tell her you don’t want to drive her sister over to see her. See how long you survive.’ 

‘Shit.’ 

When they hit the bottom of the stairs Derek led her through the crowd until they found dad. He already had a beer in his hand, though they seemed to have moved on from tattoos and trash-talking and were now swapping stories. There always seemed to be a neverending supply of stories, because Stiles didn’t think she had ever heard the same story twice. If it wasn’t for the fact that her dad had never shown any inclination for tall tales, she’d think they were all made up, and for all she knew, maybe Daphne’s were. 

‘Ah, there she is,’ dad said, eyebrows rising as she sidled up to him. ‘You changed.’ 

‘Uh, yeah.’ She glanced at Derek. ‘Apparently I wasn’t having fun in clothes I hated.’ 

‘Imagine that,’ dad said, dryly. ‘Though I am wondering why you have tiny penises on your face.’

‘Present from Derek,’ she said, before her brain caught up with what her dad had said and she realised she’d never taken the veil off before leaving Derek’s room. ‘Oh, god.’ 

Behind her, Derek made a choking sound and Stiles resolutely didn’t turn around to see what his face looked like. 

‘It was a joke,’ Derek said, voice strained. ‘I also bought her a snow globe of the Loch Ness monster.’ 

‘It’s lovely,’ Daphne said, reaching out to run the veil through her fingers. 

Face flaming, Stiles pulled it off and hid it uselessly behind her back, purposely ignoring Peter, who was guaranteed to be smirking right now, and still trying not to look at Derek until she could without blushing. 

‘Uh-huh,’ dad said, giving her a very knowing look. ‘Good to see you, Derek.’ He held out his hand and his smile broadened when Derek hesitated. ‘You’re looking well.’

Looking slightly apprehensive, Derek reached forward and shook his hand. ‘Thank you, sir. It’s good to be home.’ 

Dad looked like he didn’t believe a word of it - nearly everyone had overheard at least one explosive argument between Talia and Derek - but he was kind enough not to say anything. 

Desperate to change the subject, Stiles flicked the hand holding the beer. ‘Hey, I thought you were my ride home.’ 

‘Maybe you were my ride. Did you ever think of that?’ 

‘What?’

‘How the tables have turned!’ Dad grinned at her and both Peter and Daphne were openly laughing at her. She didn’t need to turn and look at Derek to know he was finding this funny too. It would all be in his eyebrows. 

‘That’s so unfair.’ 

‘Why? Were you thinking of drinking today?’ 

‘That’s not the point.’ 

‘Well, I’m glad we’ve agreed. Now go away and let your old man have some fun.’

‘Oh my god, dad. I didn’t need to hear you say that.’ She grabbed Derek’s hand. ‘Escort me to the kitchen. I require sustenance.’ 

‘No alcohol,’ dad called after them and Stiles waved a hand in acknowledgment. 

‘I get drunk with Scott one time, and no-one let’s me forget it,’ she grumbled, sidetracking briefly into the laundry room to dump the veil on top of a load of dirty clothes, right next to what looked like Derek’s smelly socks. She’d come back for it later, when there were fewer witnesses around and it couldn’t be used as blackmail material.

‘That’s because he’s a werewolf and didn’t even get tipsy,’ Derek called behind her, as he entered the kitchen. ‘You, on the other hand, were three sheets to the wind after a couple of shots.’

‘That is such a lie. It was half a bottle, at least.’ 

Derek was getting himself a glass of water and staring out the window when she walked into the kitchen. ‘Well, however much it was, getting you home after I found you was no fun and you were convinced you were on death’s door for at least two days.’ 

‘Don’t remind me,’ she groaned, picking at some of the nibbles plated up on the counter. 

It was quieter in the kitchen. All the food and drink was outside - no doubt lunch was mostly gone by now, given werewolf appetites - and only family were allowed back in the kitchen itself. 

Derek was still staring out the window. Curious, Stiles joined him at the sink, grinning when she saw Cora and Lydia sitting on the porch swing, smooching. ‘That’s new,’ Derek said. 

Seeing way more tongue that she was comfortable with, Stiles turned so she was leaning against the counter and nudged Derek with her hip. ‘Not so new now.’ 

Last time he’d been in the country Lydia and Jackson had been in the middle of an explosive break-up that had started when Jackson had dumped Lydia at lunch time in the middle of the cafeteria. Cora had wanted to punch him in the nose several times and it had taken Scott, Boyd and Stiles to stop her from following through. None of them had been there, though, when Cora had slammed Jackson’s face into the hood of his porsche after school, earning herself a three day suspension. Two days after that, Stiles was driving Derek to the airport and he’d managed to miss out on all the following Cora and Lydia drama.

He let Stiles pull him away from the window and towards the fridge, which she proceeded to ransack. ‘Why didn’t I know?’ 

‘I was forbidden,’ she told him around a mouthful of gherkin. 

Derek raised an eyebrow. 

‘Cora was pissed you left so I wasn’t allowed to tell you.’ Which was fair because Cora had been the one to suffer the brunt of Laura’s temper and though their dad had managed to defuse much of Talia’s anger (how, Stiles wasn’t interested in knowing) the alpha still hadn’t been all that fun to be around for the first few weeks after Derek’s departure. ‘And you are hardly one to talk about telling people stuff.’

Derek crossed his arms and stared at her steadily.

Stiles scowled, a trickle of guilt warring with irritation. ‘You know, she’s just out there.’ She pointed at the window with her gherkin. ‘You could ask her yourself.’ 

‘She’ll just tell me to mind my own business.’ He paused. ‘And probably punch me for interrupting.’ 

‘Maybe I’ll punch you for being an assface, did you consider that?’ 

For a second Stiles thought Derek was going to acknowledge that leaving for so long had been a dick move, but instead he steadfastly avoided her eyes as he reached past her and pulled out the Stilton cheese and some grapes. With a huff, Stiles turned and shoved the empty gherkin jar back in the fridge, because petty revenge was all she had.

When she slammed the fridge door shut - the shelves bare but for the ancient jar of rollmops even she wouldn’t eat - Derek was holding out a square of cheese and a grape on a magically appearing cracker, like a peace offering. ‘You know, your dad’s the first person who hasn’t asked me anything about my trip.’ 

Stiles wasn’t proud. She ate Derek’s tasty bribe, and _then_ punched him in the biceps. ‘Seriously?’

Looking bewildered, Derek rubbed at his arm. ‘Ow. What was that for?’ 

‘I call you assface, say I want to punch you and you start talking about my _dad_?’ 

Derek’s sheepish look only served to make her angrier because it meant he knew what he was doing. 

Hands on her hips, she glared at him. ‘Stop acting like you were only away for a few weeks and everything’s the same as when you left. It was four months, Derek. You were over in Europe and I had no clue when you were coming back. Or even if you were coming back.’ Derek had been there for Stiles through everything - big and small - and she hadn't dealt well with the possibility of him not being there the next time something important happened. 

‘I was always coming back.’

‘How would I know that?’ she demanded, throwing her arms up in the air and nearly hitting Derek in the face. ‘You never said.’ 

Derek looked terrible, like it was finally dawning on him that she was angry and hurt. ‘I was always coming back to you. Never doubt it, Stiles.’ 

Stiles crossed her arms and _humphed_. It hadn’t been her plan to tell Derek how much it had sucked, having him gone for so long. At least, not until he’d been back for a few days. She’d meant to just enjoy him being home, but she couldn’t deny that it was a relief that he now knew. 

Derek tentatively sidled up to her and gently brushed his hand down her arm. ‘I’m sorry.’ 

After glaring at him for a moment, Stiles relented, uncrossed her arms and let him pull her into a hug. 

‘I should have told you more about what was going on,’ he said, lips brushing her temple. ‘I won’t do that again.’ 

She tightened her hold on him. ‘You better not.’ 

‘Promise.’

The churning in her stomach lessened and Stiles let her head drop onto his shoulder. ‘Good. Because it’s been weird here, and I don’t mean Lydia and Cora getting together. Or Allison and Isaac continually circling each other in some weird courtship dance. The whole pack has just given off this truly weird-ass vibe, and I haven’t had anyone to talk to about it. Lydia and Cora have been too caught up in each other. Scott hasn’t even noticed there’s anything weird, so telling him’s pointless. Your mom told me I was being melodramatic. And I’m not talking to Peter about pack stuff, just on general principle.’ 

Keeping one arm wrapped around her, Derek started cutting up some more cheese cubes, probably having heard the noise Stiles’ stomach was making. ‘Weird, how?’ 

‘Laura, mostly. But other things, too. But I don’t want to talk about it now. That’s not the point of this conversation.’ 

He rubbed his hand comfortingly up and down her back. 

She snuggled closer to him, and ate the cracker straight from his fingers when he offered it to her. ‘It’s not like when you were at college. You came home virtually every weekend so anything I didn’t want to talk to you about on Skype, I told you then. I couldn’t do that this time.’ 

‘I know. Me neither.’ 

Stiles shifted her head so she could catch his eye. ‘There’s other stuff you want to tell me?’ 

Derek nodded. ‘Lots.’ 

She poked him in the chest, smirking to herself when he jumped. ‘I meant to save this up and yell at you when you weren’t jetlagged.’

‘Good job with that.’ 

‘Shut up.’ She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. After a moment of them standing there together, Stiles said, ‘So, you’ve been asked a series of really dumb questions about Europe, huh?’ 

‘Do they have electricity in Europe. Do they have fast internet. Do they use passports. Do they speak English in Poland.’

‘Okay, stop,’ Stiles said, reaching up and pressing her hand to his mouth. ‘Please stop. I can’t handle the stupid.’ 

Grinning, Derek evaded her hand. ‘Have they heard of Disney.’

Stiles straightened and covered her ears. ‘The stupid, it burns, it burns.’ 

Derek opened the cupboard and pulled out an unopened packet of cookies. He handed her a couple, which she took eagerly, popping one in her mouth immediately. Oreos were her favourite. 

Derek took a couple for himself. ‘The best was if they have working drains or not.’ 

‘So help me, but if you don’t shut up, I’m going to channel Cookie Monster and eat the whole packet and not leave you any.’ 

‘Please, Oreos are your favourite. Like I’m getting any more anyway.’ He tucked the packet into her arms, and pushed her gently towards the door leading out to the garden. ‘How stupid do you think I am?’

The afternoon sun was still high in the sky and Stiles was relieved when Derek led her over to the shade of the tree line and the hollowed out oak tree that Derek liked to read next to. It was quieter over there and they were less likely to be disturbed by idiots wanting to ask Derek dumb questions. 

‘So what kept you there so long?’ she asked, sitting down. ‘Did you just keep finding more cool places to visit? Are their kite competitions way better than ours?’ 

He sat down next to her. ‘It was partly that there’s a lot over there to see,’ he said, playing with her hand. ‘But, uh, I was at one of the kite comps when I met an alpha there.’

Stiles thought back through all her conversations with Derek until a name jumped out at her. ‘Sat… Satamari?’ 

‘Satomi.’

Stiles snapped her fingers. ‘Oh, so close. But anyway. Satomi.’ 

‘We got talking. About kites. Some of her pack make them.’

‘You must have been in kite geek heaven.’ A part of her really wished she’d been there to see it because watching a happy and enthusiastic Derek was one of her favourite things. 

‘I showed her some of the photos you have on Instagram of my kites.’

‘And?’ 

Derek’s cheeks turned an utterly adorable shade of pink. ‘She really liked them. They let me use their workshop to make a few.’

Anticipation was thrumming through Stiles and she felt like she was going to burst. ‘Derek Sebastian Hale, I know there is more to this story, so spit it out.’

‘She thinks I should make them professionally.’ There was pride in his voice and it was great to hear. ‘And then sell them.’ 

Dropping his hand, Stiles launched herself at Derek, laughing as she wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘You’re an asshole for not telling me immediately. But that’s amazing.’ She pulled back so she could see his face. ‘You’re gonna do it, right?’

Derek nodded. ‘She told me how. And she said she’d help.’ 

‘Good. That’s really good. And don’t you let Laura or anyone else tell you otherwise.’ 

Derek loved his kites and everything that went into making them. From researching, to deciding on the right material, to working out the dimensions and how to make them as aerodynamic as possible. Most of it flew (Ha!) over Stiles’ head - well, not the research, she loved helping with the research - but she could listen to Derek talking about it for hours. _Had_ listened to him talking about it as she watched him create masterpieces. Which was good because Cora wasn’t interested, Laura seemed to consider it something to laugh about, and his parents only saw it as a hobby. 

‘Or you’ll beat them up for me?’ 

‘Hell yes.’ She settled against his side, his arm around her waist at the perfect angle so she could run her fingers back and forth along his arm as she thought. ‘You’ll need a workshop.’

‘I know.’

‘You’ve been thinking about this a lot then?’ 

‘Yeah. There are, uh, some good possibilities in the re-vamped warehouse district.’ 

Stiles was quiet for a second. That was far enough away for Derek to be considered outside Talia’s immediate territory. ‘Most of those come with apartments attached.’ 

‘I know.’ 

‘Suddenly, you know a lot of things,’ she told him. ‘And all of this came from Satomi?’ 

Derek shrugged. ‘Some of it. I.’ He frowned. ‘She helped me -’

‘Sort out what’s been churning you up inside for the last year or so?’ Stiles suggested. 

‘Yeah.’ 

‘You seem… more grounded in yourself. It looks good on you. But, uh, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you’ve not talked to Talia about this yet?’ 

‘That’s for tomorrow.’

‘That’s gonna be fun for you.’ 

Derek nodded, looking apprehensive. 

They sat quietly, Stiles making her way through the Oreos, and after watching the people milling around on the lawn for a while, Derek lay back on the ground. ‘I hate people.’ 

‘Then it’s a good thing that you’re moving out and can take up hermitting professionally.’ 

Derek rolled his eyes. ‘At least then I won’t have to listen to all the mindless stupid things people insist on saying. Have you heard some of the conversations going on today?’ 

‘No. Human, remember? But is it really wise to make such a statement at a party filled with people who have super-duper strong hearing?’ 

Derek filched an Oreo and crunched it aggressively, as though imagining it was the bones of his enemies. 

‘Wow. I hope that wasn’t your counter argument,’ she said, lying down with her head on his stomach, wiggling around until she could get comfy on the ground. ‘Because that sucked.’ 

‘Jetlagged,’ Derek countered, fingers stroking through her hair. 

The noise from the party faded into the background as Derek’s fingers turned her to mushy goo. She was moments from dozing off when Derek tugged gently at her hair. 

‘Hey,’ he said quietly. 

Stiles hummed, still too comfortable to open her eyes. 

‘How did Cora and Lydia happen?’

‘Do you want me to tell you now?’ She rolled onto her front, arms crossed over Derek’s stomach and rested her chin on her hands. 

‘That would be why I asked.’

Stiles smiled at his grumpy tone, but his fingers were still in her hair, making it difficult to take him seriously. Stiles patted his stomach. ‘So, you know how Cora got detention when she used Jackson’s face to remodel his car?’

‘Yeah, I remember.’

It would be hard not to. Talia had been furious with Cora (Derek’s disappearance a few days later had at least taken the heat off Cora, if nothing else) and Jackson’s parents hadn’t quite known how angry to be. On the one hand they were pissed about the Jackson-sized dent in the Porsche, but on the other, he’d been picking a fight with the youngest daughter of the Beacon Hills Alpha, and, to make things worse, it wasn’t even the first time. Jackson had been picking fights with Cora since they’d met. Stiles had often wondered how Jackson’s parents had felt about their son picking fights with a Hale. 

‘So then Lydia started hanging out with us more. And then her and Cora started hanging out just the two of them.’ She elbowed Derek. ‘If you know what I mean.’ 

‘I don’t want to know what you mean,’ he told her. ‘That’s my baby sister.’ 

‘Of course, I didn’t have a clue until I walked in on them in flagrante. Neither of them leak feelings like Scott does.’

‘There are sinking ships that leak less than Scott.’

‘I feel bad not defending the honour of my best bro, but that’s an accurate statement.’ 

Derek picked an ant out of her hair, flicking it away. 'When did mom find out?'

'After Jackson did.'

Derek raised an eyebrow. 

'I'm not sure if she was more angry that Cora and Jackson had got in another fight or that it had slipped Cora's mind to mention the whole dating Lydia thing.'

'Slipped her mind?' Derek repeated, incredulous. 

Stiles shrugged. The politics of dating when you belonged to a pack were exhausting to watch so Stiles didn’t exactly blame Cora for wanting to skip it. ‘That’s what she said.’

‘How did Jackson find out?’ 

‘A few days after me. They were very subtly necking in the cafeteria. I think it’s fair to say he was surprised.’ 

The look on his face was going to be a memory she treasured forever. 

‘I’ll bet.’

‘Yeah, he stomped up to them, growling and yelling that Lydia was his. Which, you know, was utterly charming and a notion both Lydia and Cora were keen to dissuade him of, as you can imagine.’ 

‘How did that go for him?’ 

'Not brilliantly, truth be told. I think by that point Cora was tempted to find the nearest Porsche dealership and remodel every car using just Jackson’s head.’ 

Derek laughed. 'I would have expected video.'

'It would have been a YouTube sensation,' she sighed. 'But, dude, don't let Talia hear you encouraging Cora. She doesn't approve.'

'What did you do while all this was happening?'

'Nothing! Cora and I were just talking, well, laughing about it afterwards and I don't possess super-hearing and Cora was laughing too hard to hear anything or anyone approaching. And that’s how your mom found out.'

‘The pair of you are hopeless.’ He glanced over towards the house and smiled. ‘I think we’ve been found.’

Stiles looked over her shoulder, not surprised when she saw a couple of Derek’s cousins creeping towards them. 

When they noticed Derek and Stiles watching them they gave up any pretense of stealth, almost falling over each other as they raced up to Derek. 

‘Derek, you’re back!’ Alex was vibrating with excitement. ‘Can we go fly kites now?’

‘Please, Derek,’ Matilda added. ‘We haven’t gone kite flying in forever and ever and you promised.’ 

‘Yeah, Derek, let’s go fly a kite up to the highest heights,’ Stiles said, pushing onto her knees and settling crossed-legged next to him. 

Derek motioned both Alex and Matilda closer and they both clambered over him and settled on his lap. Derek’s extended family might be invasive and drive him all kinds of crazy, but he loved his younger cousins and he had infinite patience with them. 

‘I’d love to go kite flying with both of you,’ Derek said. ‘But what’s the weather like today?’ 

‘Hot,’ Matilda said immediately.

‘And?’ Derek prompted. 

‘Not really windy,’ Alex said, sounding dejected. 

‘Not really windy,’ Derek agreed. ‘But I promise you that as soon as we have a windy day I’ll take you and anyone else who wants to come out to the field and we can spend all day flying kites.’ 

Stiles bit her lip to stop herself from making any embarrassing noises. She was definitely getting in on that action. She loved watching Derek help kids with their kites.

‘Really?’ Matilda asked, looking at Derek like he’d hung the moon.

‘Really,’ Derek promised. ‘I even have a few new kites for you to try.’ 

‘What are they?’ Matilda asked at the same time Alex said, ‘Can we see them?’

‘Not today, I still need to pick them up from the post office. But something you can do today is check with your parents that it’s okay to spend the day flying kites with me. That way we’ll be all ready to go when the wind comes up. Okay?’

Alex nodded and jumped up immediately. He yelled ’Bye,’ over his shoulder, and ran off to do just that. Matilda stayed on his knee, and tugged at his shirt. ‘Derek, girls can fly kites can’t they? Shelly said they can’t, but she’s mean.’

‘Course they can,’ Derek said. ‘In fact, I can show you how to make your own kite if you want. That’ll show Shelly.’

With the biggest, most hopeful eyes in the world, she asked, ‘An Elsa one?’ 

Derek melted like an ice-cube in the Sahara. ‘Sure. Whatever you want, Matty.’

‘Yay!’ Matilda gave him a clumsy kiss on the cheek, and then climbed out of his lap primarily via her elbows, and ran off after Alex.

‘Oh my god,’ Stiles said, laughing. ‘The Derek Hale school of Kite Flying. You’re such a soft touch.’ 

‘But she’s going to have the best damn Elsa kite the world has ever seen.’ Derek was rubbing his chest, where Matilda had clocked him a good one with her pointy little elbow. ‘Do you think that’s something people might pay for?’

‘Novelty kites? Probably.’

‘No, lessons.’ 

‘Hell, yes,’ Stiles said. ‘Great idea. You could do school trips or something. Maybe some workshops that people pay to come to on weekends. And they would, you know. People do it for things like bookbinding and the courses get booked up months in advance.’

‘Do you really think -’

‘Here you both are,’ Laura interrupted, marching up and standing over them with her hands on her hips. ’This is where you’ve been hiding all this time. I’ve been looking all over for you.’

Derek gritted his teeth and glared at Laura. Stiles glanced between them, quickly coming to the conclusion that Derek and Laura were still at each other’s throats and Derek’s time away hadn’t really done much to cool it. If anything, it looked like it might have gotten worse.

‘We haven’t been that difficult to find,’ Stiles said, when Derek didn’t seem to be interested in responding. 

‘God, Derek, stop hogging Stiles,’ Laura said. She dropped down next to Stiles and threw an arm over her shoulder, pulling her away from Derek. ‘Jackson was supposed to tell you that there’s a game about to start on the lawn and you’re both playing.’ She shot a look at Derek. ‘I suppose you’re more interested in playing with your stupid kites than a game of lacrosse, but Stiles is most certainly playing anyway.’ 

‘Derek’s kites aren’t stupid,’ Stiles said, letting Laura pull her to her feet. ‘They’re amazing.’ 

Laura rolled her eyes. ‘It’s just letting bits of material go up and down and back and forth in some wind. Where’s the skill in that?’

‘Well, considering how the one and only time you flew one of Derek’s kites, you managed to kamikaze it into the ground, I’m gonna go with there’s a lot of skill in that.’ 

Behind them, Stiles heard Derek try to turn a laugh into a cough. 

‘Shut your mouth,’ Laura said, hugging Stiles closer and rubbing her nose against Stiles’ temple. ‘I thought you liked me. Why would you remind me of such a thing?’ 

‘Because it’s true,’ Derek said from Stiles’ other side. 

Laura stiffened. ‘Just because I have better things to do with my time than play about with kites like I’m still a kid -’

‘It’s not playing,’ Derek snapped. 

‘Oh, someone’s feeling defensive today, aren’t they?’

Derek glared at her. 

‘Jeez, Derek. Could you be any more lame?’ Laura winked at Stiles, like Stiles would agree with her that Derek’s kites were anything other than awesome. When Stiles said as much, Laura shook her head, in mock pity. 

‘Ask me how lame I am after my team has kicked yours off the field,’ Derek said. 

‘Big words, Der-bear. Big words.’ 

Derek scowled at the hated nickname Laura had bestowed on him and used whenever she wanted to annoy him. Which was most of the time these days. Stiles listened to them bickering as they crossed the lawn, frowning when the insults turned mean. 

Derek may have left because he hated arguing with Talia, but things hadn’t been good between him and Laura, either. They had been bickering and bitching at each other for as long as Stiles could remember, but about six months before Derek had left, things between them had developed an edge that hadn’t been there before. When Stiles had asked, Talia had told her that it was just siblings butting heads and nothing to worry about. 

Stiles hadn’t been satisfied with that explanation and had gone on a research binge about werewolf pack dynamics, and she was still trying to decide if what she’d discovered was worrisome or not. It certainly wasn't as simple as just siblings butting heads. Whether they knew it or not, Laura and Derek had been jockeying for position in the pack. It was as though Derek had powered up for some reason, putting him on near equal footing with Laura, and she clearly wasn’t okay with that. 

When Derek had left, Laura had stopped being quite so high strung. With him back, Laura was once again trying to reaffirm her position in the pack at Derek’s expense. But now there was a steadiness to Derek that hadn't existed before. He had settled into his skin, and maybe, Stiles hoped, come to terms with what had happened with Kate and Jennifer. Watching Derek's newfound confidence made Stiles feel stupidly happy and proud. Although it hadn’t helped sort anything out with Laura; if anything, it appeared to be making it worse. 

By the time they arrived at the makeshift pitch and found everyone lounging around, Laura’s mouth was pinched and Derek’s expression was dark.


	4. In which games are played and so is lacrosse

Laura put a couple of fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. ‘Everyone up.’ She sounded almost menacingly cheerful, reminding Stiles of Finstock in a disturbing fashion. ‘New game. Derek and I are picking teams.’ 

Scott and Kira scrambled eagerly to their feet, and Stiles wondered how many games they had already played, and how they both still looked fresh as daisies. 

Allison called Isaac and Danny over from where they were talking to a few people and Jackson unfortunately followed them. As they got closer Jackson glared at Cora and Lydia, who were still sitting on the grass, talking quietly and kissing.

Laura noticed them and rolled her eyes. ‘Come on you two lovebirds,’ she said, ‘either you’re playing or get off the pitch.’

‘Of course I’m playing,’ Cora said, sounding uncharacteristically subdued as she looked between Derek, who was scowling, and Laura, with Stiles still under her arm. In the guise of helping Lydia stand, she was able to keep in between them and Lydia. Stiles only recognised the move because Derek had done something similar to her a few times when visiting packs had come to the Hale house. 

Laura wasn’t paying Cora any mind, too busy ordering the others into a line, but Derek was watching Cora with a slightly puzzled look on his face as she kept Lydia shielded with her body.

Catching Stiles’ eye, he tilted his head questioningly. It took a second for her to realise he was concerned with Cora finding him and Laura a threat. 

She scrunched up her nose and shrugged, wondering if, or more likely, when, she’d need to talk to him about all things Laura. Maybe he had a better idea than Stiles about why it was happening, and between them they could come up with a way to smooth things over. 

‘I’m sitting this one out,’ Lydia said, leaning against Cora. ‘I’m strictly a spectator only.’ 

Laura nodded. ‘You can referee, then.’

‘That’s acceptable,’ Lydia said, taking the whistle Laura handed to her. 

‘Now, my first pick is -’

‘Stiles is on my team,’ Derek interrupted, arms crossed. 

‘It’s not your turn, Derek.’ Laura smiled thinly. ‘You know the rules.’ 

‘Stiles is still on my team,’ Derek repeated flatly. 

‘I pick first, Derek. So if I pick Stiles she’s on my team.’ Laura gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘Right, Stiles?’ 

‘Then maybe I should have first pick instead,’ Derek snapped back. 

Feeling a bit like a deer in headlights, Stiles locked gazes with Scott, who looked like he desperately wanted to get her out from between Laura and Derek, but didn’t know how to do it and still be alive at the end. 

Laura turned to Derek, dragging Stiles with her. ‘You think you should have first pick?’

To stop things from escalating any further, Stiles twisted out from under Laura’s arm and moved quickly to Derek’s side before Laura could pull her back.

Laura’s hand twitched, like she was tempted to make a grab for her. ‘Are you sure that’s where you want to be?’ she asked. ‘With me you’d finally be on the winning team.’

‘I’m already on a winning team.’ She slipped under Derek’s arm, and held Laura’s gaze steadily. ‘Now that we’ve got that sorted, shall we carry on picking the rest of the teams?’ 

Laura stared at her for a second, frowning, before giving herself a shake and turning back to the others. ‘Fine,’ she said, tone clipped.

Derek pulled Stiles in front of him, his chest to her back, arm securely around her waist. He nosed along her jaw and then at her temple, exactly where Laura had earlier. 

It was a good thing that Stiles wasn’t easily embarrassed (the indulgent looks on pretty much everyone’s face, except Jackson’s pissy sneer, could be really embarrassing if Stiles thought about it) and that she had gotten used to Derek’s complete and utter disregard for personal space years ago. He’d treated her more like a wolf for about as long as she could remember, although after Kate he’d become more reserved in public, preferring to keep his wolfy side for when he felt safe. 

As a kid she’d taken every and any opportunity to curl up next to him, forcing her way under his arm. By the time Stiles had realised that she might be more than a little in love with Derek there didn’t seem to be much point in freaking out about how close they were, because that was how they worked. Plus, Stiles was going to hoard every moment she got with Derek until he got a (significantly less psycho than Kate) girlfriend and propriety reasserted itself. 

‘My first pick is Jackson.’

Behind her, Stiles heard Derek inhale sharply.

Everyone else stopped talking and turned to stare at Laura in shock.

Jackson had wanted the bite for years, but Talia had never agreed to bite him, even when his parents had asked. It was never said why, but Stiles hadn’t been surprised that Talia considered Jackson bad werewolf material. That hadn’t stopped Jackson from going off the previous summer and getting himself bitten by a less discerning alpha. Talia had been furious, but she tolerated his presence, even though he kept making a nuisance of himself and pushing for higher status in the pack. 

For Laura to choose Jackson first was a huge deal and a massive slap in the face to, well, everyone else. 

Cora was staring at Laura, her eyes wide and mouth open, a look of pure hurt on her face. 

Jackson preened, and strutted to Laura’s side, sneering at Cora as he passed her. 

Cora snarled at him and only Lydia’s hand on her arm stopped her from launching herself at him. 

‘Remember, Jackson, you weren’t first choice,’ Stiles said, hating the look on Cora’s face and wishing she could go over to her, but that would just make things worse. She really hated werewolf politics sometimes.

Jackson bared his teeth at Stiles and although it was a half-hearted attempt at best, Derek growled low in his throat. Stiles felt his chest rumble before she heard it, shivering minutely as she marvelled at how much Jackson was managing to piss off Derek in such a short space of time. 

‘My second pick,’ Laura said, glaring at Derek, as though she were daring him to argue with her. Derek, though, said nothing. ‘is Kira.’ 

After a moment Derek said, ‘Danny.’ 

Usually Stiles would agree with Derek; get the best goalie as quickly as possible. This time, though, she wished Derek had made a different choice. She got why Derek hadn’t chosen Cora: it would have further antagonised Laura and it gave her a chance to pick Cora herself and make things right with her sister. But Stiles thought Derek was giving Laura too much credit. When she was in a mood like this she never snapped out of it quickly and she was probably going to make Cora suffer.

When Laura picked Scott next, Cora stood up straight and squared her shoulders. 

This time, Derek chose Boyd. 

After Laura chose Erica, Stiles saw Cora crack a little. 

Before Derek could say anything, Stiles rocked back into Derek’s chest to get his attention. ‘Take Cora.’ 

Derek looked at her curiously. ‘Yeah?’ 

Cora didn’t deserve to be used in whatever game Laura was playing, so she nodded. ‘Yeah.’ She grinned at Cora. ‘Because there’s nothing funnier than watching her knock Jackson on his ass.’

Jackson glared at her and Stiles smiled sweetly at him.

Glancing between Jackson and Stiles, Derek shrugged. ‘Cora it is, then.’ 

Cora bounded up to Derek and Stiles and pressed an exuberant kiss to Derek’s cheek. Then Cora turned to Stiles and they bumped fists.

Laura was watching them both, stony faced, and for a second Stiles thought she was going to say or do something, but Scott cleared his throat.

‘Uh, I think you have one more pick?’

Laura took a deep breath and smiled, although, Stiles wouldn’t exactly call it friendly. ‘You’re right, I do.’ She looked between Allison and Isaac. ‘Isaac.’ 

Cora picked up a couple of crosses and handed one to Allison. ‘Welcome to the team.’ The other she gave to Stiles. ‘Totally the best team ever.’ 

‘I think you meant most chaotic,’ Laura said, ruffling Jackson’s hair as he handed her a crosse. If he preened any more, he’d turn into a fucking peacock. 

‘We still have the best goalie,’ Cora said, slinging an arm around Danny’s shoulders and completely ignoring Laura. 

Laura turned her back to Cora. ‘Humans, suit up.’

Stiles, Danny and Allison took that as their cue to pull on knee and elbow packs. They all knew the perils of not wearing at least some protective gear when playing against werewolves.

Danny waved at the kids who were settling along the sidelines to watch. ‘Being the best isn’t going to help much if you keep giving away penalties by barging into Jackson,’ he told Cora, grabbing his helmet. 

‘You hold the record for most number of clean sheets,’ Cora reminded him. ‘I think you can handle little old me getting some well placed revenge on Jackson.’ 

Danny shook his head in resignation, but didn’t actually disagree, and Cora beamed at him as he walked over to stand in goal. 

‘What the hell is going on with those two?’ Lydia muttered as she walked past Stiles to the middle of the pitch, her gaze flicking between Derek and Laura.

Stiles shrugged, because she was beginning to think that there was more to it than either sibling rivalry or simple pack hierarchy. She just needed to figure out what. ‘No idea, but let’s keep them from killing each other.’ 

The game started fast when Lydia blew the whistle, and only got more aggressive. A minute into the first quarter and Stiles was beginning to wonder if any of them were going to get out alive. Lydia definitely had her work cut out for her because whatever was going on with Laura and Derek seemed to be affecting the other wolves as well. 

Usually their games were really fun, but right now Stiles was doing well just to dodge out of everyone’s way and not get flattened. She was fit, dammit, she ran with wolves on a regular basis. But after ten minutes she felt like her lungs were about to burst and what she wouldn’t give for a gallon of water to tip over her head and cool down. 

It didn’t help that Jackson had taken Laura choosing him first as some kind of sign, and he was barking out orders like he was history’s most ineffectual general and spending too much time trying to take out Cora, which Laura totally acted like she didn’t see. 

‘Hey, Cora,’ Stiles called across the pitch, ‘you can start that special game plan of yours _any_ time now.’ 

Cora saluted Stiles with her crosse. ‘Just waiting for the perfect moment, boss.’

A few minutes later Lydia called an end to the first quarter. Taking advantage of the momentary pause, Stiles wiped her brow on her t-shirt, enjoying the cool breeze on her stomach. 

When she opened her eyes Derek was staring at her. She wiggled her eyebrows at him, but he turned away abruptly without making a face back, and started to confer with Boyd.

‘Nice view,’ Cora said, bounding up to her and handing her a bottle of water. 

‘I bet you say that to all the girls.’ Grabbing the water gratefully, Stiles gulped half of it straight away, immediately feeling less like she was about to melt. 

Cora winked at her. They companionably drank water side-by-side until the whistle blew, and Stiles let Cora drag her back across the pitch for the game to continue. 

Two goals later and Stiles was already feeling dizzy on endorphins from working so hard to keep up with the werewolves. That was bad enough, but as she walked back to the starting position after Isaac scored, she nearly tripped over her own feet when she saw Derek strip off his henley - would have, if Scott hadn’t been there to steady her. Dropping it on the ground, Derek rolled his shoulders and re-joined the game just as Lydia blew the whistle. 

Stiles was vaguely aware of Scott saying something to her, but it was like her immunity to Derek’s hotness had temporarily gone offline. Those four months had done a number on her, and now she couldn’t help but stare at all the tanned skin on display. There were muscles, chest hair and sweat. Not to mention the way Derek’s jeans emphasised his frankly obscene hip bones. 

Then Derek stretched, raising the crosse over his head, and she promptly tripped over nothing, and fell into Scott again, who steadied her while laughing his ass off. 

‘Oh my god, shut up.’ She tried to ram her shoulder into his side, ostensibly to keep him away from the game, but mostly because she didn’t want him to pull anyone’s attention to them. 

‘I’m not saying anything,’ Scott protested, cheerfully evading her. 

‘Not with your words, you’re not,’ she hissed. ‘But you’re leaking dopey smugness all over the place.’

Giving herself a shake, she realised she’d missed some of the game and hurried to catch up. It didn’t look like anyone had noticed her gormless expression while staring at Derek, which was a relief. 

To distract herself from being distracted, Stiles poured even more effort into keeping Scott from being a useful member of his team, pulling faces and making comments guaranteed to make him laugh. It didn’t help, though, and Stiles kept finding her attention drifting to wherever Derek was and just watching him. 

A foul was called against Isaac and Cora stepped up to take the ball, darting in to press a quick kiss to the corner of Lydia’s mouth. 

‘No trying to sway the referee with kisses,’ Lydia said, but her cheeks were pink with a tell-tale blush of pleasure. 

‘But you’d already called it, so there was no swaying on my part,’ Cora said with a grin. 

‘Plus, you’re all sweaty,’ Lydia added primly, wrinkling her nose. 

‘But you like me all sweaty.’ 

‘I don’t need to be hearing this,’ Derek muttered, from where he was standing with Isaac, who looked like he very much wanted to be hearing everything Cora was saying. 

Cora turned to look at him. ‘Because you’re such a saint,’ she teased.

Derek didn’t respond, and started pointedly tested the strings of his crosse. 

‘Come on, Derek,’ Cora cajoled. ‘You spent four years at college and the last few months travelling round Europe. Are you really telling me that in all that time you never flirted with anyone, and never got laid?’ 

Derek scowled at Cora. ‘I’m telling you I’m uncomfortable with you talking like that. Isn’t that enough?’ 

‘But I barely said anything.’ Cora looked over at Stiles, but she was staying well out of it. Derek had issues with dirty talk after Kate, and it was no-one else’s business. ‘I don’t get it.’

Laura came over and patted Cora condescending on the shoulder. ‘You heard him. Der-bear’s private life is just that, private.’ She flashed a quick, mean grin at Derek. ‘We’re not good enough to share that kind of stuff with. He generally likes to pretend none of us ever have sex. Or maybe Der-bear actually doesn’t. Who knows, who cares.’

Stiles didn’t say anything, but her money was on celibacy. After Kate, Derek had cut out everyone he didn’t consider family and it had been a small circle left. He was really only just getting over it now. 

‘Can you stop calling me that,’ Derek growled. 

‘Never.’ 

‘If someone doesn’t take this shot,’ Lydia interrupted, earning herself Stiles’ undying gratitude, ‘Derek’s team gets a penalty, and Laura’s team gets the ball.’ 

The only upside to the whole situation was that when play resumed, Stiles had no problems keeping her mind on the game, Derek’s attractiveness safely tucked back away in the usual mental folder she kept it in. 

Erica had the ball and was running down the field, yelling at Boyd to ‘Get in position, get in position!’, when she was tackled by Isaac. The ball tumbled out of her crosse and over the ground towards Stiles and Scott.

Stiles immediately went for it, but Scott got there first, scooping it up with a triumphant yell and throwing it across the field to Laura, who was momentarily unguarded. She caught it neatly and streaked off towards the goal. 

Stiles was about to say, ‘Great shot,’ because she could totally be the bigger woman for a great play like that, but instead found herself being tackled to the ground - remarkably gently, if she did say so - by Derek. ‘I - what?’ 

Derek was crouching over her protectively, fully wolfed out and growling. 

Before Stiles could demand to know what the hell was going on, she noticed a misshapen lacrosse ball rolling to a stop close to her head. Then she saw a fading welt on Derek’s shoulder, a few drops of blood still staining the skin beneath it. She traced it with the tip of a finger, vaguely aware that there were people around them, yelling. 

Tipping her head back, she was both surprised and not even a little bit surprised to see everyone yelling at Jackson. Boyd was holding Cora, who was yelling about Jackson being an ass and looking like she wanted to reacquaint Jackson’s head with his Porsche. 

‘Hang on a minute.’ Stiles pulled Derek’s hair to get his attention, noting that his eyes were shining a bright coppery gold. ‘Did Jackson throw that at me? On purpose?’

Derek made a noise that, if she’d been Jackson, would have had her running for the hills. Jackson just wasn’t that smart. He was currently arguing with pretty much everyone, as far as she could tell. 

‘Hey, asshole,’ she yelled. ‘Did you just try to kill me?’ Because if it had brought up a welt on Derek’s skin, then it would probably have punched a hole through her chest. Jackson ignored her and Stiles pushed at Derek’s shoulder. ‘Let me up. I have to go and shove every ounce of wolfsbane that I can find up his ass.’ 

If anything, Derek dropped more of his weight on her and for a moment her anger was completely derailed by the fact that Derek was essentially scent-marking _her entire body_. It was nothing she’d seen him do before, but she was pretty sure it was some kind of werewolfy reaction that had been triggered by Jackson’s attack. It would be kind of nice if she wasn’t so worried about Derek, who seemed to be running pretty much entirely on instinct right now. He was shaking slightly and panting wetly against her skin, making her break out in goosebumps. 

She pressed a hand to Derek’s cheek and forced him to look at her. ‘You need to let me up,’ she told him firmly, because sooner or later everyone was going to stop yelling at Jackson and notice that Derek was still lying on top of her. Some of the spectators had probably already noticed. 

He didn’t react, except to growl at a subsonic level she could feel in her bones.

‘Derek, you’re worrying me, dude.’ Her voice quivered embarrassingly, and that was what finally seemed to get through to him. 

He shifted back to human, and slowly pushed up until he met her gaze, cheekbones flushed pink and eyes dark, a slightly panicked look on his face, as though he’d just realised what he’d been doing.

Stiles could feel her heart beating erratically as she reached out and and ran a thumb gently along one of his eyebrows, gratified when he pushed into her touch, his earlier panic slowly fading away. 

‘Referee’s decision is final,’ Lydia said, breaking through the bubble they seemed to be in. ‘Now get back out there before I penalise you all for trying to intimidate the referee.’

Stiles said, ‘We can talk later, okay? For now I think you need to deal with Cora before she actually kills Jackson.’

Derek nodded and stood, pulling Stiles up with him, and only reluctantly letting go of her hands and stepping away. 

‘Well, wasn’t that touching,’ Jackson sneered, pushing past Erica and Kira. 

The gold that had faded from Derek’s eyes flashed back far brighter than Stiles had ever seen it and when he growled Stiles saw his fangs had dropped; there was no hint of playfulness about him anymore. Jackson had been winding Derek up all afternoon, and he’d finally succeeded in shredding Derek’s control, which Stiles honestly hadn’t thought possible. She was pretty sure Jackson was about half a minute from having his throat ripped out for real, unless he backed off. 

‘Fuck you, Jackson,’ Stiles snapped. ‘Cut it out, right now.’

‘Is the reason you haven’t fallen on his dick yet because it doesn’t work any more? Or is he only into psycho murderers?’ 

Derek lunged for Jackson, shifting as he did so. Without thinking, Stiles shoved herself into his path, and Derek reared back before he bowled her over. Derek’s eyes were still focused on Jackson, who Stiles could hear back-pedalling and yelling in fear, finally having caught a clue. Derek started to move around her and she stepped right up into his personal space, and placed a hand in the middle of his chest. 

‘We’re done here. Let’s go back up to the house.’ 

Derek didn’t reply, but he stopped growling and leaned slightly into her touch. His eyes, though, were still trained on Jackson, like he was just waiting for him to let his guard down before attacking.

Out of the corner of her eye, Stiles thought she saw Peter hurrying towards the house, and wondered, angrily, what was more important than stopping a simple lacrosse game from turning into a bloodbath. 

‘Hey, look at me, not him.’ She snapped her fingers in front of Derek’s face, gratified when his gaze jumped straight to her. To stop his attention from returning to Jackson, she cupped his cheeks. ‘Whatever stupid thing you’re thinking of doing, get it out of your head. Now.’ 

Derek shook his head, like he was trying to clear it, and his shift slowly bled away.

When she was sure Derek was back in control she stepped away letting her hands fall to her sides. She turned around, ready to give Jackson a piece of her mind and found him cowering behind Laura, who looked genuinely shaken. Before she could say anything, Talia’s voice carried across the pitch.

‘Derek.’ She was walking towards them from the house, Peter just a few paces behind her.

Starting slightly, Derek turned around. ‘Mom?’

‘I need to talk with you.’

Shoulders hunching, Derek nodded. He walked stiffly over to where he’d dropped his henley and pulled it back on. 

Around them, Stiles could hear those closest to the pitch muttering excitedly.

‘But what about Jackson?’ she protested. ‘It’s his fault. He’s been winding Derek up all day.’ 

Talia paused, gaze taking in Jackson still standing behind Laura, one hand clutching her shirt, before turning to consider Stiles. ‘Stiles, could you join us, too?’ To a lot of people it probably sounded like a request, but Stiles knew better. It might look like Stiles’ inclusion was an afterthought, but Stiles was positive that Talia had meant to include her all along. 

With one last look at the remaining lacrosse players, Talia turned and headed back to the house, Derek trailing behind her. 

Cora went and picked up Stiles’ and Derek’s abandoned crosses and muttered, ‘Good luck,’ under her breath.

Peter was waiting for Stiles, and ushered her ahead of him as though to make sure she didn’t head for the hills.

Ignoring Peter, Stiles hurried to catch up with Derek. She fell into step with him. ‘Are you okay?’ she murmured. 

Derek shrugged, but he looked cagey, like he definitely had ideas about what had prompted Talia to call them up to the house, and not, say, Laura and Jackson for all their stirring. 

‘Helpful,’ she griped, but didn’t push. No point in making Derek even more tense. 

They all went into the study, Peter shutting the soundproofed door behind them so whatever they discussed would stay private. Talia sat on the chaise longue while Peter walked around it and positioned himself behind her, leaning against the desk. Stiles let Derek steer her towards the sofa opposite Talia, but before she could sit down, Talia patted the seat next to her.

‘Stiles, honey, why don’t you come and sit next to me?’ 

Not wanting to offend her alpha, especially when she had no idea why she’d been called into Talia’s office, Stiles did as she was told. One look at Derek and how stiff his shoulders were told her he’d realised this was a less than subtle move to separate them. 

‘I was going to wait until the summer party was over and done with, but I don’t think this can wait any longer.’ 

Derek didn’t say anything so Talia sighed and kept talking. ‘Derek, sweetheart -’

Derek flinched, and Stiles wanted nothing more than to go and sit next to him. She must have moved because Talia’s hand came down on her knee. 

‘- you know we only want what’s best for you. We’re worried about you.’

‘What are you worried about?’ Derek asked, voice tight. 

‘I understand that finding your place in the pack can be difficult -’ Stiles highly doubted that, as her place as alpha would have been secured way before she even hit double figures ‘- but you can’t act out like this. Running off to Europe was the last in a long line of rebellions.’

‘That’s not what I’m doing,’ Derek said. 

‘Then why don’t you try and explain to us what it is you’re doing?’ Peter suggested. 

‘I feel… trapped. I need my own space.’

‘You’re hardly the first wolf who’s found it difficult to settle into their place in the pack,’ Talia said. 

Stiles wanted to bang her head against the wall at how much Talia and Peter weren’t _listening_. That wasn’t what Derek was saying, yet no-one else seemed to be able to see that. 

Peter said, ‘There’s always some jostling as siblings grow older. Talia and I had our rough spots as teenagers before we settled into things.’ 

Stiles rolled her eyes. ‘It’s not that,’ she couldn’t help saying. ‘I know you keep saying it is, but it’s not.’ 

‘Stiles, I understand that you’ve read some of our books, but that doesn’t mean -’

‘It’s not about Laura at all!’ Stiles interrupted. ‘No matter how much you say it is. The Laura thing is a result, not the cause.’ 

Talia patted her knee, as though Stiles was still six and thought werewolves were her personal climbing gym. ‘Sweetheart, I know you mean well, but denying the problem isn’t helping. Let Derek speak.’

It took a lot of effort not to get up and walk out, but Stiles did it for Derek. He caught Stiles’ eye, and she gave him an encouraging smile, willing him to keep trying to explain it to Talia. 

Derek rolled his shoulders and sat up a little straighter. ‘When I’m here, I feel like everything is closing in around me. Everything feels...’ He cast around for the right word. ‘... too tight. So, I, uh, found a place downtown,’ he said. ‘It comes with a studio.’ 

Talia’s expression had turned neutral, but Stiles could see that her jaw was clenched. 

‘I, uh, found it before I left and put in an offer. It was finalised a few weeks before I came back.’

Stiles blinked in surprise. Derek hadn’t mentioned anything about moving out of the pack house to her before he’d left. 

‘What do you need a studio for?’ Talia asked.

‘My kites -’

‘No,’ Talia snapped. ‘We’ve had that conversation, and nothing has changed. You’re an adult and part of a pack. You don’t get to hide away and play at your hobby instead of pulling your weight.’

Derek looked sucker punched, and Stiles felt sick with anger. She tried to shove Talia’s hand off her knee, but Talia just clamped down, holding her in place.

‘And to that end,’ Talia continued, ‘Peter and I have been talking.’ She glanced over at her brother. ‘We believe it would be good for you to spend some time with just the pack, remember where you belong.’

Derek became very still. ‘What are you saying?’ 

‘The pack will spend time together now you’re back. Reinforce our bonds.’ 

Derek’s eyes slid to where Stiles was sitting next to Talia. ‘Stiles is pack.’

Talia shook her head. ‘No Stiles. Not for a few weeks. You’re too dependant on each other. It’s not healthy.’ 

The way Peter nodded his agreement made Stiles think it was a conversation they’d had a lot while Derek had been away. Maybe even longer. This was the reason they’d wanted her here: so they could announce Stiles was banned and then institute it straight away, with no time for Derek and Stiles to figure out a way to fight it.

‘And we don’t get a say?’ Derek’s fingers curled into fists, trying to hide that his claws were out. 

‘This is what I’m talking about,’ Talia said. ‘Exactly this. You keep letting your anger get the better of you.’ 

‘Bullshit,’ Stiles exclaimed, unable to keep quiet any longer. She thought she’d held on to her temper fairly well until that point, but there was only so much she’d let Talia say to Derek. ‘He doesn’t get angry until people start throwing around threats.’ 

‘Stiles, I understand that you’re trying to help -’ Stiles raised an eyebrow at the exceptionally patronising tone of Talia’s voice ‘- but you don’t understand the situation.’ 

‘I understand it just fine,’ Stiles shot back. ‘If anyone doesn’t understand the situation, it’s you and Peter.’ 

The frustration Talia was obviously feeling finally started to show through as she gave Stiles a very narrow look. ‘I know you like to think you have insight into what goes on in our pack, but don’t presume to understand.’ 

‘Don’t talk to Stiles like that,’ Derek growled. ‘She understands our pack just fine.’ 

‘Derek,’ Talia sighed in exasperation. 

‘And she understands me perfectly.’ Derek’s voice rose, drowning out whatever Talia had been about to say. ‘Which is more I can say about you.’ 

Stiles’ eyes widened. For all that Derek and Talia had argued, even before Derek had left, she’d never heard him talk to her in that tone of voice. 

Talia took it as the challenge it was, her eyes flashing red. ‘Derek Sebastian Hale. You are my beta. You do not talk to me that way. You will do as I say.’

Even as a human, the power of the alpha voice made Stiles want to curl up somewhere very small. Preferably behind Derek. 

Derek would usually be shaking with trying to fight the effects, but this time the alpha voice was apparently having little effect on him. He stood, fangs and claws out, fur rippling along his cheeks; his shoulders, always packed with muscle, suddenly looked a lot bigger. When he raised his eyes, they were flashing a fiery orange, like nothing Stiles had ever seen before. 

‘No.’

Talia surged up off the couch, her own teeth and claws out, and Peter took a predatory step forward to box Derek in.

‘Stop!’ Stiles darted over to Derek and slid her hand into his, careful of the claws. He gripped her back tightly. ’Now look who’s letting anger get the better of them!’ 

That seemed to get through to Talia and after a beat she waved Peter back. Neither of them shifted out of their beta form, but they both relaxed enough for there to be no imminent threat. ‘You should go back to the party, Stiles,’ Talia said, her red gaze boring into Stiles.

‘No, I think we’re done here,’ Stiles said firmly, ignoring the fact she was shaking and her knees felt like they were made of water. ‘At least until you’re actually willing to hear what Derek’s saying instead of assuming you know everything. Come on, Derek.’

She tugged Derek towards the door, keeping herself between Derek and the others, even though Derek clearly wasn’t happy about it. She started to open the door, freedom so close she could taste it, when Peter spoke.

‘You do know what happens to werewolves who challenge their alpha and don’t follow through, don’t you, Stiles?’

When Stiles looked over at him, he was pretending to examine his claws, but he looked up to catch her eye.

After a loaded silence, Derek was the one who answered. ‘They become omegas,’ he said woodenly, all the fight drained from his voice.

Talia took a step towards them, letting the shift fade. ‘We’re not trying to hurt you, Derek. We’re worried that if we can’t resolve this, you’ll end up an omega. You know what that means.’

‘Yeah,’ Stiles snapped. ‘Just as well he’s got an in with another pack then, I guess. From what Derek tells me, Satomi seems pretty awesome. I guess we’ll be giving her a call.’

That set the cat among the pigeons. Talia’s shift shivered back across her face, and Peter let out a growl.

‘Stiles!’ Derek hissed, glaring at her. ‘What are you doing?’

For an awful moment Stiles thought she might have overstepped, but the dead look had already left Derek’s eyes, and his attention was on her, not Talia or Peter.

Stiles squeezed his hand. ‘If you really want to stay and try to talk some more, I’ve got your back, you know that. But what they’re doing is emotional blackmail, Derek. They’re so fucking sure they know best, but you and I both know you can’t live like this. If they really won’t pull their heads out of their asses and listen to you, I don’t see the point of going along with their bullshit. This isn’t the only pack in the world. We have options. It’s okay if we leave.’ 

She wrenched the door the rest of the way open, and tugged at Derek’s hand. For a moment she thought he might balk, but he didn’t, following her out into the hallway. She glanced back over her shoulder in time to see Talia looking genuinely gobsmacked and Peter glaring at Stiles with a creepy intensity, which made her feel a fierce kind of pride. Good. Maybe now they’d actually take this seriously instead of driving Derek away. More importantly, Derek was looking like a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he was almost treading on her heels with how closely he was following her.


	5. In which Derek's secrets are laid bare, and Stiles approves

‘Where are we going?’ Derek murmured, his breath brushing against her ear.

Stiles had no idea, but didn’t want to be anywhere near Talia and Peter, so she headed towards the front door. ‘We’re making a dramatic getaway, Derek. It’s mandatory it includes at least one fast car. It’s the rules.’

She paused for a moment once they got outside, looking around to see if anyone was going to try to stop them. Fortunately, most of the party-goers were out the back, and they had a pretty clear path to the cars. She headed towards dad’s cruiser, but Derek stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. 

‘What?’ 

‘We aren’t taking your dad’s car, Stiles. That’s a terrible plan.’ 

‘But -’

‘The Camaro is right over there. I had David make sure it didn’t get boxed in.’

‘Were you expecting to need to make a quick escape?’ 

Derek glanced back at the house. ‘It’s a good thing I did, isn’t it?’ 

Rolling her eyes, Stiles let Derek lead her over to the Camaro. They were nearly there when Derek tensed. Laura appeared from between two crookedly parked cars, essentially cutting off their route to the Camaro.

‘Running away again so soon, baby brother?’ 

‘Leave us be, Laura,’ Derek said, sounding fed up. He pulled Stiles so that she was firmly behind him. Normally she’d object to being treated like she needed protecting, but Laura was looking a little wild around the eyes and it was making Stiles nervous. 

Laura snarled and barrelled into Derek, crashing him to the ground in a flurry of snarls, claws and fangs. 

Stiles barely managed to jump out of the way in time. Her throat closed in fear at how truly vicious Laura was being. Much as she wished she could help Derek, she knew that getting in the way would only make things harder for him, so she took several steps back, careful never to take her eyes off them.

‘What the fuck, Laura?’ Derek growled, using his body weight to roll them away from Stiles, even though it put him at a disadvantage -- Laura ending up on top of him again and immediately punching him in the face. 

‘Running away is your forte, Derek, isn’t it? First from mom and now the pack.’ She tried to punch him again, but Derek’s surprise had worn off now, and he blocked it before it landed. Before she could try again, he wrapped one leg around her and heaved. She went spinning off him and slammed into the wheel hub of an SUV.

It barely fazed her, and they both jumped gracefully to their feet, Derek planting himself very firmly between Laura and Stiles. 

This time when Laura went for him Derek blocked her easily. In fact, now that Stiles wasn’t immediately afraid of being flattened by brawling werewolves, she could see that Derek was easily holding his own against Laura. That was new. 

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, Laura.’ 

The fact that Derek could hold Laura at bay and try to reason with her was kind of blowing Stiles’ mind. She couldn’t imagine what it was doing to Laura’s. Six months ago Laura would have had him pinned on the ground within minutes. Stiles didn’t think that was going to happen this time. 

‘I heard you and mom talking -’

Stiles groaned. That was her fault. She shouldn’t have opened the door before they’d finished talking with Talia and Peter. 

‘- and now you’re leaving the pack? After everything you’ve put us through with Kate and then with Jennifer. You think you can just walk away?’ 

Colour drained from Derek’s face and his guard dropped just long enough for Laura to get in a couple of punches before Derek threw her into one of the cars hard enough to crack the windshield and set off the alarm. 

‘Holy shit,’ Stiles breathed because _Derek had just thrown Laura into a car_.

‘Don’t. Talk. About. Them,’ he spat out, advancing on Laura who was still lying on the car, looking dazed. 

‘Why not?’ Laura snapped back, as she gingerly rolled onto her feet once more. ‘You keep on putting this pack in danger and now you’re going to do it again by leaving us all because you’re feeling pissy about your place here. Grow the fuck up, Derek.’

Stiles wondered if she should run and get Talia because, really, whatever was going on, only she could stop Laura and Derek beating on each other. On the other hand, she’d literally just told Talia to pull her head out of her ass, so wasn’t keen to talk to her again so soon, especially about Derek fighting with Laura.

Just as Stiles took a reluctant step towards the house, Jackson appeared on the roof of the damaged car and leapt off it onto Derek’s back, yelling, ‘Fuck you, asshole!’ His claws were out, and left a trail of blood-filled scratch marks across Derek’s neck and shoulder as he clung on like a demented monkey.

Derek reached over his shoulder like he was about to yank off his henley, grabbed hold of Jackson one-handed, and threw him to the ground like it was something he did all the time. Jackson grunted, and didn’t immediately get up again. It had happened so fast, but still not in time for Derek to dodge Laura’s claws. They dragged through the muscle of his forearm with a wet sound, and blood fell out in a horrifying spray before the wounds sealed over again. 

Laura grinned triumphantly and lashed out again, this time getting Derek across the chest, leaving three slashes in his shirt, and drawing out another spray of blood. 

‘Stop,’ Stiles yelled. ‘Laura, stop it. You’re hurting him.’ 

‘Good,’ she snarled, taking her eyes off Derek long enough for him to pounce and push her onto the ground face-down, and then lean on her with his full body weight. 

‘What the hell are you playing at, Laura?’ Derek demanded. She didn’t answer, just flung her head back wildly, trying to get free. As he dodged her head-butt, Laura managed to spike his calf with the claws of one hand. Derek didn’t even wince, just bore down harder.

Jackson finally got up again while Derek and Laura were struggling, and rolled into a crouch. When he noticed Stiles, he grinned. 

‘Oh double shit,’ she said, backing away from him and wincing when she hit one of the cars. ‘Fuck. Jackson, don’t be a douchebag.’ 

‘You always were trouble, Stilinski,’ Jackson said. ‘I’m going to enjoy this.’ 

Jackson leapt at her with a growl, but before he could reach her, Derek roared. Everything happened too fast for Stiles to see, and then Jackson went flying backwards, Derek now standing in front of her, fully in beta shift, claws extended.

Jackson was curled up on the ground, whining, blood staining his shirt, but Stiles couldn’t enjoy it because Laura was crouched low, growling in the back of her throat, readying herself to attack again. 

‘Stop!’ Talia’s voice rang out. ‘Laura Elizabeth Hale, you will stop this immediately.’ 

Laura shifted back to human, looking confused, and bared her neck to Talia, her eyes flicking nervously to Derek. ‘But what about Derek?’ 

‘Go up to the house. To the study. I think it’s time we had a talk.’ Talia switched her attention to Jackson. ‘You too, Jackson.’

‘Yes, Alpha,’ Jackson said, getting shakily to his feet, still cradling his right arm. He shot Derek one last look before taking off towards the house. Stiles noticed that he didn’t take the same route Laura did. 

‘Derek,’ Talia said, stepping further into Derek’s eyeline, but no closer. ‘Stiles is safe now. You can shift back.’ 

Stiles was trembling all over, but moved closer to Derek, resting her hand on his back. ‘Hey,’ she said, snagging hold of his bloody and ripped Henley.

Derek relaxed slightly under her touch and when he turned to look at her, the shift was gone. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, looking and sounding completely wrecked. 

She nodded. ‘He didn’t get close to me. Are you okay?’

Derek shrugged, not even pretending he wasn’t shaken up by what had happened.

Looking over at the crowd that had gathered, Stiles met Talia’s eyes. ‘This wasn’t Derek’s fault.’ 

‘I realise that. And also that there is more going on here than normal sibling squabbling.’

Stiles resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Just. ‘I’m going to take Derek to get cleaned up and give Laura some time to calm down.’

‘That would be wise. But when you return we should talk again. And this time I’ll listen to you properly, Derek.’ 

Derek nodded. ‘We’ll see you in a while.’ 

Stiles ushered Derek towards the Camaro. ‘Give me the keys.’

‘You think I’m going to let you -’

‘Derek, you’ve just been in an out and out brawl with your sister and I don’t care that you’re a werewolf. You got hurt and you’re covered in blood. Your blood. Give me the damn keys, or so help me, I’ll stick you in the trunk myself.’ 

Derek handed over the keys and climbed into the passenger seat without another word of complaint. Stiles didn’t miss the wince as he closed the door, though. 

When she climbed into the driver’s seat, Derek was resting his head against the glass and his eyes were closed. He stayed like that while they drove down the winding country road that led to the main road, but by the time they hit the busier streets of Beacon Hills, he was more alert. 

‘Where are we going?’ he asked. 

‘My house,’ she told him. ‘To get you cleaned up.’

‘No, wait. Take the next right. Head towards the warehouse district.’

‘Derek, you’re covered in blood. We’re not going anywhere -’

‘Where we’re going has a bathroom,’ he told her. ‘And no-one knows where it is. We’ll be safe.’ 

‘Are you talking about your new workshop?’

Derek nodded. 

When Stiles silently took the next right turn, the last of the post-fight tension eased out of his shoulders, and his fists finally uncurled.

Ten minutes later, as Stiles pulled up in front of a converted warehouse, a thought occurred to her. ‘Do you have your keys for this place?’ 

Derek leaned over and flicked the keys on his keyring. 

‘Good.’ 

She was about to open the door when Derek’s phone started to ring. With a frown Derek pulled it from his pocket and looked at the screen. ‘It’s for you,’ he said, handing it over. 

_Sheriff Stilinski_ was flashing on the screen and Stiles quickly answered. ‘Hey, dad.’ 

‘Stiles, thank God. Where are you? Are you okay?’ 

‘A bit shaken, but otherwise okay.’ Stiles slumped back in the seat, glancing at Derek. ‘And I’m with Derek at his new place.’

‘Is he okay? Do either of you want to press charges against Laura or Jackson?’

Stiles bit her lip and raised an eyebrow at Derek, who shrugged. ‘Derek’s healed up okay, but is still a bit shaken up too. I dunno about pressing charges. We haven’t really thought about it.’

‘We can talk about it when I get there.’ 

Derek tensed up at that, his hands starting to curl back up into fists.

‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. Rein in the cavalry, dad. We need a bit of quiet time to get our sea legs back.’ 

‘Stiles.’

Stiles couldn’t pull out the puppy dog eyes, but she laid on her best pleading voice and crossed her fingers. ‘Please, daddy. I’m just talking an hour. Two at most. I’ll text you when we’re ready, yeah?’

Dad sighed, and she could hear the rasp of his hand rubbing his face. ‘You make sure you text me,’ dad said. ‘I have enough grey hairs already without adding more from worry.’

‘Promise. You’re the best. Thank you!’ 

‘Look after yourself, kiddo. And Derek. Call me if you need me.’

‘Will do.’ She ended the call and turned to look at Derek. ‘One helicopter parent temporarily diverted. Don’t thank me all at once.’

Derek smiled at her, looking relieved. ‘He’s just worried about you. Can’t blame him for that.’ He opened his door. ‘Come on. Let’s get inside.’ 

By the time she was out the car, Derek already had the trunk open and was hefting a duffle bag. 

‘Clean clothes.’

Stiles nodded. She grabbed his hand, wanting a little comfort for her own still-shaken nerves, and followed him inside, curious to see what it looked like.

Still holding his car keys, she found the right one and unlocked the door, Derek shouldering it open. The first thing she saw was an old warehouse elevator that Stiles eyed dubiously when Derek led her into it. 

‘Relax,’ he told her. ‘I had it refitted while I was away. It’s safe.’ 

‘If we end up plummeting to our deaths, you better make sure I land on you.’ 

‘Promise,’ Derek said with a grin. 

They went up a floor and when the elevator doors opened it was to a huge, empty room, with massive floor to ceiling windows that stretched across the whole of the wall opposite. The light was amazing and Stiles could totally understand why Derek liked it. Outside one window she could see a new looking fire escape. 

‘Whoa.’ Stiles said, and her voice even echoed a little. 

‘It was supposed to be a communal studio for several artists,’ Derek said as he kicked off his shoes. ‘But I liked the space.’

‘So you bought the whole floor?’ Stiles wasn’t really surprised. ‘Of course you did.’ 

He pulled the elevator door closed behind them and shrugged. 

‘You are such a goober.’

Even though the space was empty, Stiles could well imagine what it would look like when it was full of the big tables Derek used for making his kites, along with the storage units he kept his materials in. 

Derek pointed to their left and down the corridor there. ‘Guest rooms are down there, along with a bathroom. Door closest is the kitchen.’

It was hard for her to really take in the place when Derek was covered in dried and flaking blood. She wanted to make sure he was okay first, before she went exploring. ‘Where’s your bathroom?’ she asked. 

Derek pointed to one of the doors to their right. ‘That’s the main bedroom through there. There’s a bathroom too.’

Kicking off her own shoes, and dropping the keys into one of them, she gave his hand a tug. ‘Then that’s where we’re going.’

‘Stiles, you know I’ve already healed.’

‘I don’t care,’ she said. ‘The blood is freaking me out.’ 

‘Can’t have that,’ Derek said, as he gave in to her tugging and followed her to the bathroom. 

It was a nice bathroom, with a huge double shower, but Stiles couldn’t be less interested in it if she tried. 

Derek dumped the duffle on the counter and pulled off his ruined Henley. With a look of disgust he dropped it on the floor and kicked it into the corner. ‘I liked that one.’ 

Despite her problem at the lacrosse game, this time Stiles had no problem with being distracted by Derek’s abs. They had dried blood dripping down them and it was also matting his chest hair. Not to mention the blood on his arm, his temple and down his neck. It looked awful, and Stiles wanted it all gone. 

‘I should leave you to shower,’ she said. ‘You look like an extra from a horror movie.’ 

Derek pulled a face. ‘Can’t. Hot water isn’t up and working yet.’ 

‘What! You said there were bathrooms here, you liar.’

‘This is a bathroom,’ Derek said, but he looked entirely sheepish about it.

‘Bathrooms without hot water do not count as bathrooms!’ Stiles gestured towards the duffle. ‘Is there a towel in there?’ 

‘A couple.’ 

‘Okay, I guess we can try and get rid of as much as we can.’ Opening the bag she pulled out a towel along with a pair of sweatpants. She waved at the dried blood on his jeans. ‘Your leg, too,’ she said. ‘She got your leg too.’ 

Before Stiles could really think about what she’d said Derek was undoing his jeans and pushing them down his legs and kicking them into the corner of the room with his Henley, leaving him just in a pair of black boxer briefs. 

As Derek didn’t seem bothered with being mostly naked, Stiles tried not to be weird about it, but this was nothing like seeing him in his swimming trunks down at the lake. Giving herself a mental shake, she turned on the water and shoved the towel under it. ‘Get over here.’

Derek came over and leaned against the counter next to her. She handed him the towel and he wiped off the blood on his arm, chest and leg, the towel quickly turning red. 

When Derek had finished wiping off the blood he could reach, he offered her the towel he’d used to finish off the rest. She batted away his hands and shook her head. She wasn’t usually so squeamish, but today she just couldn’t touch something soaked with Derek’s blood. Instead, Stiles picked up the other towel and held it under the tap. 

Derek balled up the used towel and threw it over to join his wrecked clothes. He hopped up onto the counter and Stiles found herself standing between his thighs, gently wiping away the blood at his temple, which he must have swiped with his bloody hand after the fight. 

She wiped down over his ear, getting the blood that had dried in his hair, before moving down to his neck and shoulder. Her heart was thumping against her ribcage and her hand was still shaking slightly. 

She could feel Derek watching her, but she couldn’t look away from where she was wiping at a particularly stubborn patch of blood left behind by Jackson’s claws. 

He reached up and stilled her hand. ‘Are you okay?’ 

She shook her head. ‘I don’t really understand what happened today, but it scared me.’ 

‘Hey,’ Derek said, tilting his head until they made eye contact. ‘You know I’m scared too? I kinda just left my pack and I could only do that because I trust you.’ 

Stiles’ stomach soured. ‘I didn’t -’ She swallowed. ‘- I didn’t make you do that, did I? I hated how they were telling you how you felt, but I didn’t mean to make you do something you didn’t want to. I didn’t think Laura would _attack_ you.’

‘Stiles, I ran away to Europe for four months,’ he said, resting his forehead against hers. ‘You didn’t make me do anything. You just helped me leave on my own terms and not stay somewhere I was unhappy. And you’re not responsible for Laura, either. That’s been brewing a long, long time.’ 

Stiles closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. ‘As long as you’re sure. I never want to force you into anything, and I don’t want you to get hurt because of something I’ve done.’ 

‘You never would,’ he murmured, nosing at her temple. Leaning back, Derek eyed her critically. ‘You look like a small breeze could knock you over.’ 

Stiles made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh and wasn’t quite a sob. ‘That’s pretty much how I feel.’

He took the towel from her and added it to the growing pile in the corner. ‘Come on, let’s go sit down. You’re shaking all over.’ 

Stiles held her hand in front of her face, and was surprised to see that Derek was right. Now she was thinking about it, she realised her teeth were chattering too. ‘C...crap.’

‘Adrenaline drop,’ Derek said, chivvying her towards the bathroom door. ‘You need a hot drink and a lie down.’ 

She crossed her arms and tucked her hands in her armpits, to try and stop them from shaking. ‘Where?’ 

Derek gave her an odd look. ‘On the big bed we passed on our way in here.’

Stiles blinked and stared blankly at Derek.

There was a look of fond exasperation on his face. ‘You didn’t notice the bed, did you?’ 

Stiles shook her head. In her defence she’d been more than a little distracted by the blood all over Derek and trying not to freak out. 

‘Don’t you need some clothes?’ she asked. All that bare skin was making her cold just looking at it.

Derek kept her moving towards the bed, which was now very obvious and covered in crisp new sheets, but no blankets. ‘My skin still feels too new.’ 

‘Can I have your clothes then? I feel cold.’ 

‘Good thinking.’ He plonked her down on the bed, and then ducked back into the bathroom. He came out with the clean henley and helped her pull it on. The clothes must have been in the Camaro for the last four months, but even so, they still smelt faintly of Derek. When she was ready he lay down next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. Stiles leaned gratefully into the warmth of his body and let him snuggle her. It was really nice.

As they lay there, the shaking slowly subsided and she felt weary to the bone and like she could sleep for a week. She doubted Derek was faring much better after using so much energy to heal himself. 

‘Better?’ Derek asked, making a satisfied rumble when she nodded. ‘We should really get you something hot and sweet to drink.’

‘Do you have any tea?’ Stiles asked hopefully. 

‘Uh, no.’ Derek looked sheepish. ‘I don’t have any food in yet.’

‘You’re hopeless.’

‘I could order in?’

Stiles draped herself over him a bit more firmly. ‘Later. It’s nap time.’

Derek laughed, but stroked her hair in an extremely agreeable way.

‘So,’ she said, drowsily, enjoying the warmth Derek was radiating, ‘how was your day?’ 

Derek huffed in amusement. ‘Really fucking eventful.’

‘Yeah,’ Stiles said. Derek’s other hand was resting on his stomach and she trailed her fingers along his forearm in a random pattern. ‘It was that. How do you feel? I mean, about splitting from the pack?’ 

‘It feels kind of weird,’ Derek said after a moment. ‘But it’s a relief too. Going to Europe, and talking with Satomi helped me realise there’s nothing wrong with me, but I still felt off. But now. Now I feel right for the first time about a year.’ 

‘Do you want to find another alpha? Maybe Satomi can help with that.’ 

‘I don’t think I do. Just thinking about it makes me feel all cramped up again.’ Derek frowned. ‘I should want an alpha, though, right? Maybe there is something wrong with me after all.’ 

That made Stiles remember something. ‘While you’ve been away I’ve been reading so many books about pack hierarchies and pack politics and the forming of packs, all that fun stuff. Talia wouldn’t tell me anything, and I was going crazy with worry, so I just read everything I could find. _Anyway_ , long story short, I think I’ve read about this happening before. Like, you and Laura were jockeying for position in the pack, but I just didn’t get why. You weren’t challenging her, but she’d keep acting like you were. It didn’t fit the usual stuff the books talked about, because they all said it happened when there was a challenge. I may not be a werewolf, but I know a challenge when I see one, and it wasn’t that, so it was a mystery. A mysterious mystery of mysteriousness. But then I stumbled on this book of really weird shit, and I wasn’t even sure if it was stuff that could actually happen or just legends, you know?’

‘And?’ 

‘And I think maybe you’re powering up, pokemon style.’

‘Stiles,’ Derek said, full of exasperation. ‘What does that even mean? In English.’

‘Sorry. It means you’re becoming an alpha.’ 

Derek pulled back a bit and frowned at her disbelievingly. ‘That can’t be right. I’m not an alpha. Laura’s the next alpha.’ 

‘Of your mom’s pack, sure. But you’re making your own pack.’ 

‘It doesn’t work that way. I can’t be an _alpha_...’ he paused, clearly thinking. ‘Although,’ he said slowly, ‘in hindsight, Satomi was very polite, given I was just a beta wandering around in her territory.’ 

‘Maybe she could sense something,’ Stiles suggested. 

Derek hummed under his breath, but didn’t say anything. He snuggled in closer again, pressing his nose to her neck, not trying to hide that he was taking in her scent. When Derek spoke again it was subdued. ‘Is there a way to find out?’ 

‘If you’re an alpha?’ 

Derek nodded. 

‘Actually, yeah. There are a whole bunch of tests you can do. Tick off a bunch of them and you’re well on your way to being an alpha. Tick off all of them, and you’re an alpha.’ 

‘So what are they?’ 

Stiles thought back through what the book had said. ‘So for most of them you need to be shifted.’ She waited for a moment, but when Derek didn’t do anything, she smacked his chest. ‘So shift already.’

‘What? Now?’ 

‘Well, don’t you want to know now?’ 

‘Yeah, but. Are you okay with me shifting here?’ 

‘You think after years of watching you shift, _now_ is when I’m going to be scared of you? It just makes you extra cuddly.’ 

‘Only you would call a shifted werewolf cuddly,’ he said, words slurring around his fangs. 

Stiles rested her chin on his chest and grinned up at him. ‘So, first thing is eye colour. And yours is changing. I don’t suppose you have a mirror within reaching distance, do you?’ Derek shook his head. ‘Of course you don’t. So until you can look for yourself you’ll just have to take my word that they’re now an orangey-red colour. It looks a bit like fire, actually.’ 

‘Really?’ 

Stiles nodded. ‘Kinda awesome, truth be told.’

‘What else is there?’ Derek asked. 

‘Accelerated healing,’ she said around a yawn. 

Derek tensed beneath her. 

‘What?’ 

‘I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time, but I don’t think I’ve ever healed as fast as I did in the fight today.’ He stared at his claws for a second and Stiles only just managed to slap a hand over his arm before he dragged a claw down his forearm. 

‘Uh, it’s not a bad idea,’ she told him. ‘But could we save it for a day when the sight of blood doesn’t freak me out?’ 

‘We can do that. Is there anything else?’

‘Let me look at your fangs,’ Stiles said. 

To her surprise Derek opened his mouth without protest, so she peered at his fangs thoughtfully. 

‘I don’t suppose you ever measured them, did you?’ 

Derek pulled back and gave her an incredulous look. ‘Why the hell would I measure my fangs?’ 

‘Guys measure their dicks, don’t they? Why wouldn’t werewolves measure their fangs? And it would have been useful because I’m nearly positive your teeth are bigger. I would ask if you’ve noticed them changing, but if it was a gradual thing, I doubt it would have registered.’ 

‘No, I haven’t noticed them changing,’ Derek said evenly. ‘And I have _never_ measured my fangs. Or _anything_ else.’ 

Stiles patted his chest as patronisingly as she knew how. ‘Whatever you say, big guy.’ 

Derek made an appalled noise, and, realising what she’d just said, Stiles started laughing helplessly and smacked a hand over her face. 

Derek didn’t seem to know whether to be amused or outraged. 

‘Okay, okay,’ she said, struggling to get herself back under control. ‘What else was there? Oh, yeah. Alphas are hairier in their shifted form, which -’ She cocked her head and looked at Derek critically ‘- I think you are.’ She ran a finger over his muttonchop sideburns. ‘Yeah. You’ve got a classic wolfman look going on here. Very nineteenth-century gentleman.’ 

‘Thanks,’ Derek said dryly. 

‘And, you know,’ Stiles said. ‘I thought it was just my imagination or because I haven’t seen you in a while, but your shoulders are definitely bigger. And increased muscle mass is on the list.’ 

‘I’m stronger, too,’ Derek told her. 

‘I would never have guessed with the way you were able to throw Laura about like she was nothing,’ she said, stifling another yawn. ‘The only other thing on the list was sometimes there’s also the ability to do a full wolf shift, but that one’s optional.’ She glanced up at him with a grin. ‘You’re not suddenly getting a yen to grow a fur coat and chase cats, right?’ 

Derek froze and avoided her eyes. 

‘Oh my god, you can totally do it, can’t you? Derek! That’s the kind of thing you mention!’

‘I didn’t want to cause any more trouble in the pack,’ he said.

‘Of course you didn’t.’ She resisted the urge to reach up and ruffle his hair. Sometimes he was such an adorable idiot. ‘I totally expect a demonstration in due course. You can turn into a wolf. I need to see that. I bet your fur is really soft.’ 

A look of pure delight crossed his face. ‘Yeah?’ 

‘Of course. How is that even a question?’ Stiles hated how, even after being close for so many years, Derek still sometimes questioned how accepting of his wolf-side she was. He had never worried about it until Kate and whatever fucked up shit she’d done to make him feel ashamed about everything that made him a werewolf. It made Stiles mad every time she thought about it. 

Derek gave her a happy squeeze. 

‘So, all of that, plus the disruptions in the pack, yeah, that’s pretty much the entire big bad wolf checklist ticked off.’ 

‘The big bad wolf checklist?’ Derek repeated. ‘What is this? Little Red Riding Hood?’

Stiles laughed. ‘You have no idea how close you are. Get this, right. The book I got all this from, I think it’s where the whole “my what big teeth you’ve got” comes from. Powering up like this is rare enough that I think the signs of impending alphadom got eaten up and spat out as part of Little Red Riding Hood. It’s not like it’s the first time something like that’s happened.’ 

‘Huh. I hate that fairy tale.’ Derek shifted back to his human face, but stayed very quiet for a while, thinking things over. ‘I’m not sure I want to be an alpha.’ 

Not liking the way Derek’s mouth was twisting unhappily, Stiles rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. ‘Hey, it’s not that bad. Promise.’ 

‘Do you think my mom is going to think it’s not that bad?’ 

‘I think she’ll be relieved now she knows what’s going on with you and Laura.’

‘Do you think she’s figured out I’m going to be an alpha? Or will I have to tell her?’ He looked heartbroken at the thought. 

‘I’ll help if it comes to that, but I think Peter will have read about it at some point, and will have mentioned it as a possibility by now. He’s probably going to be pissed that I worked it out before he did.’ 

Derek ran a hand through her hair. ‘He definitely will be.’ 

‘But seriously, Derek. I think Talia will just be relieved she knows what’s going on, because she’s been...’ Stiles hesitated, not wanting to bad-mouth Derek’s mom too badly while he was looking so fragile. ‘It hasn’t been her finest hour as an alpha or as a mother, let’s put it that way. Hopefully she’s realised that if she’d just listened to you instead of assuming she knew what was happening, so much of this could have been avoided.’ 

Maybe Derek wouldn’t have felt like he had to leave Beacon Hills, and Laura probably wouldn’t have attacked him like she had. Jackson would always have been Jackson, but even he probably wouldn’t have gone half-feral under more stable circumstances. It made Stiles feel even more resentful of Talia than she had when Talia had just been dismissing Stiles’ concerns. 

‘When we go back, what do you think she’s going to want to talk about?’ 

‘Forming your own pack under her?’ Stiles hazarded. Although that made her wonder what would happen once Laura became alpha. Something told her that while Derek would be fine with still being under Talia’s authority, he’d never be okay being under Laura’s. ‘Maybe territory. I’m not sure, really. I guess it depends on how ready she is to accept this is happening.’

Derek hummed noncommittally. 

‘The more important question is, what do you want to talk to her about?’

Derek shrugged, and Stiles would have pressed for a better answer, but was blindsided by a yawn that made her jaw crack. She hid her face in Derek’s shoulder. 

‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t be. We can talk more later, once it’s sunk in a bit,’ Derek said. ‘I think we should probably take that nap now.’

Her eyes felt too heavy to keep open and she nodded reluctantly. ‘That might be a good idea.’


	6. In which Stiles proves that old saying that one should never go up against a werewolf when food is on the line

Stiles had no recollection of anything more, until she woke to her stomach grumbling and remembered all over again that she hadn’t eaten anything since she and Derek had raided the kitchen for snacks hours ago. Derek was still a long line of welcome heat at her side. ‘How long was I out?’ she mumbled, not quite ready to open her eyes. 

Derek’s hand was running up and down her arm, from shoulder to elbow. ‘Just under thirty minutes.’ 

‘Please tell me you’ve already ordered food,’ she begged. 

Derek laughed quietly. ‘It should be here in about fifteen minutes.’ 

‘What did you get?’ 

‘Your favourite.’ 

‘You’re my favourite,’ she said, opening her eyes and grinning at him. 

‘Good to know.’ 

For a moment Stiles let herself bask in Derek’s arms, but then she forced herself to sit up. ‘Come on. I want the guided tour before the food gets here because then I’m not going to care if you have a hot tub hidden somewhere in this place. I will be wanting all the food.’

Sliding to the edge of the bed, Derek shot her a flat look over his shoulder. ‘You think I’d have a hot tub?’ 

‘So there’s not one on the fire escape?’ 

Derek rolled his eyes and stood up. 

‘Hey.’ She fell forward onto her stomach. ‘Wanna show me your full shift?’ 

Derek blinked at her. ‘Now?’ 

‘Unless there’s a reason not to? Or if you aren’t ready to show anyone yet. I don’t want to push you into it if you don’t want to. I know it’s a big werewolfy deal.’ 

‘I want to show you.’

‘Awesome.’ She pushed onto her knees and sat, cross-legged, at the edge of the mattress and closed her eyes. ‘Feel free to get as naked as you need to.’ 

Derek didn’t say anything and after waiting for a long moment, Stiles cautiously opened an eye. In front of her, sitting on the floor, watching her, was a truly massive black wolf. 

Her breath caught in her throat in awe and Stiles scrambled off the bed, falling to her knees next to him, eyes roaming all over. 

‘Derek,’ she breathed. ‘That’s amazing. _You’re_ amazing.’ She lifted her hand and caught herself just before she petted him. ‘Can I touch you? Is that alright?’ 

Derek lowered his head and knocked it against her hand. 

‘Thank you,’ she said. She gently ran her hand from his head, all the way along his flank, marvelling at how sleek and strong he felt. ‘Your fur is exactly as soft as I thought it would be.’ 

Under her hand, Derek preened and she couldn’t even blame him because he was a gorgeous wolf. 

‘Can I hug you?’ 

Derek shuffled closer and Stiles immediately wrapped both arms around him and buried her face in his fur and giggled because her best friend could turn into a fucking wolf and it was amazing. ‘Derek, I’m so happy for you,’ she said. ‘And so fucking proud.’ 

Derek rumbled happily and Stiles pulled back enough to look him in the eye. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you could do this, but god, seeing it like this. I’m almost glad I didn’t know because...’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t know how to explain it, but thank you so much for showing me.’

Tail swishing back and forth over the floor, Derek rubbed his muzzle against her cheek. 

‘I have so many questions for you, you know that, right? But you can’t answer them like this, which is cool, but just to give you fair warning. Once my brain is sufficiently wrapped around the fact that you can turn into a wolf, I’m going to have a list the length of your tail.’

To her amusement Derek snapped his teeth in her direction. 

‘What? That’s a fucking majestic tail, dude.’ 

When he stared up at the ceiling and shook his head, Stiles laughed, delighted to realise that so many of Derek’s mannerisms translated into his wolf-form. She wondered what a wolf rolling its eyes would look like. 

When Derek stood, he towered over her. Sitting back on her knees, Stiles’ head only came up to his shoulder. 

She glanced out the window at the setting sun and sighed. ‘Food’ll be here soon,’ she said.

Derek nodded and retrieved his boxer briefs from where they were lying on the floor and trotted over to the bathroom. 

‘Oh, so _now_ you’re concerned about modesty.’

Getting up off the floor, Stiles perched on the edge of the bed, mind still sufficiently blown that she didn’t realise that Derek was out of the bathroom until he was sitting down next to her. This time wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt.

‘Or you were putting on actual clothes.’ 

‘Or that,’ Derek agreed, handing her his phone. ‘You should probably text your dad before he tries to trace my phone here. It’s been nearly two hours.’ 

‘Shit, that would be bad.’ She opened up a new message and started typing. 

Dad called back almost immediately and Stiles had the feeling he’d been staring at his phone, waiting for her text. After assuring him that they were both feeling much better, he demanded Derek’s address, clearly intent on coming over to check for himself.

Stiles covered the phone with her hand. ‘Is it okay if I tell dad the address?‘

As Derek had been blatantly eavesdropping on both sides of the call, he didn’t look at all surprised by this question. ‘Well, he will need it to get here.’ 

‘And that isn’t a yes.’ 

‘Yes, Stiles. It’s fine if you tell your dad my address.’ 

Stiles dutifully relayed the information, along with an assurance that the lift only looked antique, to save them all from an earful about the importance of safety when he arrived. ‘He’ll be here in about thirty minutes.’ She handed Derek back the phone, and he dropped it on the bed behind him. ‘We could do the tour now, if you like, while we wait for the food.’ 

‘Maybe in a minute,’ Derek said. ‘I, uh, I have something for you. Something else I got in Europe.’ 

Stiles perked up with interest. ‘I thought I got everything already.’ 

‘Not this one.’ He picked up a small, flat box that had been hidden on his other side. He must have brought it in with him from the bathroom. ‘I was saving it until the right time.’ 

‘And that’s now?’ 

He handed her the box. ‘It is.’ 

Stiles opened it not knowing what to expect. Inside was a bracelet. A gorgeous, old silver bracelet that had two dragons on each side. In between each dragon was a celtic knot. It reminded her of Derek’s dragon kites. She ran her finger along it, taking in the intricate pattern along the border. ‘Derek, it’s beautiful.’ 

‘I’m glad you like it. I missed you so much while I was away. You have no idea.’

‘I love it, and I think I have a bit of an idea,’ Stiles said, ‘given I felt the same way about you.’ She slipped the bracelet on and admired the way it caught the light.

‘That’s good to hear,’ Derek said. ‘I’ve kind of wanted to ask you something for a while, and I think maybe... that is, I was hoping you might like to give dating me a try? I think maybe we could be good together that way.’ 

Stiles felt her mouth drop open and her blood started pounding in her ears as Derek’s words reverberated around the inside of her head. She stared at Derek, watching the way his eyes kept darting to hers and then away again. 

‘I haven’t had such a great time with dating, so this is hard for me. But I know you won’t play games, and you’ll just be honest if it’s not something you can see for us. That’ll be okay. And you can think about it if you need to. We don’t have to rush into anything. But I’m ready for more, if that’s something you think you might want.’

Stiles _really_ didn’t need to think about it. ‘Yes. Absolutely. Yes.’ her voice was a lot steadier than she thought it would have been. ‘That’s something I’ve wanted for a while now too.’ Going for broke because Derek had just put himself out there, she took a breath. ‘I didn’t say anything, though, because I thought I was too young and that it would probably freak you out.’ 

‘It does worry me a little bit. But I figure we can probably work it out. We make a good team.’

‘We do.’ Stiles nodded. ‘There is one condition, though, Derek.’ 

Derek’s expression turned anxious. ‘What?’

With a totally straight face, Stiles said, ‘Dude, no puking on my shoes.’ 

Derek cracked up, his whole face creasing with laughter. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, and she could feel it shaking through him. It was such a great sound. 

‘Absolutely no puking on your shoes,’ Derek agreed once he could speak again. ‘Got it.’ He was wearing the soppiest, most affectionate smile in the world, and it made Stiles’ heart turn over.

‘No, but really,’ she said. ‘I want to be with you.’ She gave him her best puppy dog eyes. ‘This means I can kiss you now, right?’ 

Derek nodded. ‘I’d like that.’

Feeling unexpectedly shy, Stiles tentatively leaned forward, pausing when they were just an inch apart. 

Derek was still wearing that fond smile as he looked at her. He didn’t close the distance between them, just waited for her to be ready. The only sign he was nervous was in the way he was toying with her hair, his fingers occasionally glancing against her cheek and neck and making her shiver.

The kiss was awkward at first. Derek’s lips were soft, a little gritty with stubble. Warm. When he kissed back, he did something, shifted them both so that her bottom lip slipped between his, and it made everything inside Stiles clench up in a shuddery kind of perfection. Her pants dampened in a gush, and she knew he could smell it on her and it was embarrassing, but in a good way. Stiles didn’t mind him knowing. She could feel him reacting, the way his muscles tensed beneath her hands, and it made her want to kiss him forever.

Stiles lost track of time, but when Derek pulled back he looked spectacularly dishevelled and her lips were tingling. 

‘Hey,’ Stiles protested. ‘Why have we stopped kissing? I was enjoying that.’ 

Derek smiled. ‘I was, too, but the food’s arrived.’ 

‘Oh, thank god for that. My stomach feels like it’s trying to eat itself.’ 

Derek chuckled. ‘Good to know where we rank in your priorities.’ The buzzer went and he gave her a soft kiss before standing. ‘I’ll go and get it.’ 

Stiles watched him leave the room, well aware that there was a huge, ridiculously happy smile on her face. Hearing the elevator door bang closed, Stiles stood and grabbed a few of the pillows off the bed and walked through to the workshop, hoping that he’d remembered to order drinks. 

She dropped them in the middle floor and wandered over to the windows, looking out at the slowly darkening sky and the silhouettes of the other buildings. 

When she heard the elevator start up again, she moved over to the light switch and turned on the light, making the encroaching darkness outside look suddenly much closer to night. 

Along with the bag of food there was a blanket from the trunk of the Camaro tucked under Derek’s arm. ‘Floor picnic,’ he said. 

‘Awesome plan.’ She pointed at the pillows. ‘Prevention against numb butt.’

Derek handed her the blanket and she shook it out, letting it float down into the floor. While he emptied the bag of its contents - and Stiles was pleased to see he had indeed remembered to order drinks - she put the pillows next to each other, facing the window. They would be able to see the street lights come on, and possibly even the moonrise in a bit.

She claimed one of the pillows and grabbed a spring roll, taking a huge bite, before investigating what else there was. Derek had ordered a feast, which was good because she was going to eat a lot. 

Finishing off the spring roll, she grabbed the carton of duck in plum sauce and some chopsticks. 

Derek had just sat down next to her, leg pressed against hers, when the buzzer went again. 

‘Did the delivery guy forget something?’ Stiles asked, because it didn’t look all that likely given the amount of food laid out before them. 

Derek shook his head. ‘Your dad’s here. Along with Cora, Lydia and -’ He cocked his head ‘- Lydia’s mom.’ He pushed to his feet. ‘I’ll buzz them in.’ 

Stiles ate a couple of mouthfuls. There was going to be talking, lots of talking and if she didn’t take the edge off her hunger, she was liable to stab someone with a chopstick. 

The elevator groaned back into life and Stiles raised a dubious eyebrow at Derek who was waiting awkwardly by the doors. ‘Are you sure it’s safe?’

‘Positive,’ Derek huffed. ‘Now get over here.’ 

Reluctantly, Stiles put down her food and joined Derek just as the doors opened. 

When dad stepped out of the elevator and saw Stiles all the worry fell from his face and he bundled her up into a hug. ‘Hey, kiddo. What did you manage to get yourself into this time?’

‘This wasn’t my fault.’ 

‘Talia said that too. She was quite adamant that this wasn’t your fault and that you probably stopped things from getting worse.’ 

‘Well, that’s both a relief and a surprise,’ Stiles said, taking a step back. 

Almost immediately she was hugged from both sides by Cora and Lydia. 

Cora rubbed her cheek against Stiles shoulder. ‘I can’t believe that Laura attacked you and Derek. Mom was furious. Both mom and dad were in the study for nearly an hour talking to her.’ 

‘Talia and Peter were still talking to Jackson when we left,’ Lydia added. 

Cora detached herself from Stiles and went to stand in front of Derek, neck bared to him. 

‘What are you doing here?’ Derek asked Cora. 

Giving Derek a nervous look, Cora said, ‘You chose me, so I chose you.’

For a second Stiles was worried that Derek was going to protest, but instead he looked relieved and pulled Cora into a tight hug before scenting along her cheek. 

‘Did Laura hurt you?’ Cora asked.

‘Not badly,’ Derek said. 

‘What he means to say,’ Stiles interrupted, ‘is that he was more than holding his own until Jackson crashed the party.’ 

Cora whistled.

‘So, have you and Derek decided if you’re going to press charges against Laura?’ dad asked. ‘Or Jackson. You know you’re well within your rights to do so.’ 

‘I’d prefer not to press charges against Laura,’ Derek said, frowning. He looked at Stiles. ‘But if you want to press charges against Jackson, you should.’

‘It’s tempting,’ she admitted. And it was. Jackson may have been affected by what was happening between Derek and Laura, but that didn’t excuse the way he’d tried to take advantage of the situation, or the way he’d attacked Stiles. 

‘Think about it tonight, and we can talk about it more tomorrow. You don’t need to decide straight away.’ 

Stiles nodded and then scowled at him. ‘How did you get here, anyway? You didn’t drive, did you? You would have been over the limit.’ 

‘Natalie drove. Her car got damaged in the fight -’ Out of the corner of her eye Stiles saw Derek wince ‘- and had to be towed, so I offered to give her a ride home. Then once Cora and Lydia heard me tell Talia I was stopping off to see you and Derek they tagged along.’

‘Ms Martin,’ Derek said, stepping forward. ‘I’m sorry about your car. I’d like to offer to pay for all the repairs.’ 

‘That’s very kind of you, Derek, but Talia has already spoken to me and the others about paying for all the damages.’ 

‘If you’re sure,’ Derek said. ‘I was the one who threw Laura at your windshield.’

Ms Martin beamed at him. ‘Thank you, but no. I think I’ll take Talia up on her offer. It’s not every day I get to see Talia wrong-footed. The last time was way back in senior year of college, actually, and I’d been beginning to think this day would never come. It would be different if anyone had been seriously injured, obviously, but as things are, I’m just going to enjoy being the one who isn’t having to apologise for once. Don’t take my moment away from me, Derek.’

Derek’s face was a picture after that speech, and Stiles turned to share her amusement with dad over it, but he was busy giving Ms Martin a look that Stiles wasn’t entirely comfortable seeing on her father’s face.

Hearing some shuffling going on behind her, Stiles gratefully turned around, only to see Cora and Lydia kneeling on the blanket, helping themselves to her dinner. 

‘ _Hey_!’ Stiles gave them an accusing finger jab worthy of Nancy Drew. ‘Cora, you little thief. That’s _my_ duck in plum sauce!’

Cora gave an unrepentant shrug. ‘Well, you weren’t eating it.’ 

While Stiles was making outraged noises, dad said, ‘Is that chicken and black bean sauce?’ 

Stiles turned and looked at Derek. ‘You order more food.’ There was no way they had enough for six people. ‘I’ll get more pillows.’ 

She went into the bedroom and grabbed the rest of the pillows from the bed, piling them up, one on top of the other. She couldn’t actually see where she was going, but it wasn’t like there was any furniture for her to fall over. 

Dad helped her put them down, and by the time they were done, Derek had finished putting in a repeat order. 

‘They’re putting a rush on it for us,’ he said, sitting down and picking up his beef and broccoli. He handed her the sweet and sour pork. ‘To tide you over until your duck arrives.’ 

Leaning into Derek to thank him, Stiles narrowed her eyes at Cora, who just grinned at her, chewing obnoxiously. 

‘So what are you going to do now you’ve left the Hale pack, Derek?’ Lydia asked. 

Derek shrugged. He really did have the worst poker face. Stiles marvelled at how shifty he looked.

Lydia seemed to think so too. ‘You already have an alpha in mind, don’t you? Who is it? I’m not letting Cora join up with some random alpha. I need to vet them first.’

Stiles was doing her very best not to give anything away, because this was Derek’s news to tell. But she did give him a pointed look over the top of her sweet and sour pork.

‘Why?’ Derek said. ‘Don’t you trust my judgement?’ 

‘I do, but you’re not the alpha in question, are you?’ 

Derek didn’t answer immediately, and then he didn’t answer some more, and slowly everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. 

Lydia stuck her chopsticks neatly into the container of fried rice she’d been eating. ‘That was meant to be a rhetorical question, Derek. Are you the alpha? Yes or no.’

‘Oh my god,’ Cora exclaimed. ‘Did you kill someone while you were in Europe? Is that why you’re back? You’re on the run from the law?’ 

Derek looked genuinely offended. ‘What? No! Of course not.’ He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in ridiculous-looking spikes. ‘Stiles thinks I’m an alpha now. But I didn’t kill anyone, it just _happened_.’

‘You are literally the worst at breaking news,’ Stiles said. ‘How are you this bad? I’m revoking all your news-breaking rights for the rest of time.’

‘You said you’d help,’ Derek grumbled. 

‘With _Talia_!’ Stiles said. ‘At no point did you say, “Stiles, will you please break the news that I’ve grown a few extra werewolf features to my potential new pack mates for me.”’

‘Oh!’ Ms Martin exclaimed, pulling everyone’s attention to her. ‘You’re an ontogenic alpha. How extraordinary. I’ve only met two before. It’s quite rare. It must be pretty disconcerting for you.’

Right at that moment, Stiles could have kissed Ms Martin, because Derek had stopped hunching up quite so defensively, and instead was looking at her with a hungry curiosity.

‘You’ve met people like me before?’

Ms Martin nodded. ‘I only know one by name. I met her recently at the Californian Supernatural Teachers Network conference. I can put you in touch if you like. Jacquie would probably like to talk to someone else in the same boat too, although she had rather a different experience to you. The change was triggered by extreme physical trauma for her. On the plus side, she didn’t have the problem you did of her pack not knowing something was happening. But on the minus side, she gained seventy pounds and grew a new spinal cord in just over three days. The way she described it, the whole experience was brutal.’

Derek was staring wide-eyed at that, but managed to say, ‘I’d like to talk to her, if that’s okay.’ 

Ms Martin nodded, and said she’d get back to him as soon as she’d checked with Jacquie.

Stiles couldn’t wait to pump Ms Martin for more information, but almost as important, she had a name now: _ontogenic alpha_. Her future was going to include all the research. All of it.

The buzzer interrupted whatever else Ms Martin was going to say, and Derek cocked his head to the side, listening to whoever was downstairs. ‘Why are Erica and Boyd here?’ 

‘They wanted to come, too,’ Cora said. ‘But there wasn’t enough room in the car. We texted them the address once we got here.’ She stiffened. ‘Was that okay?’ 

‘It’s fine,’ Derek said, giving Cora a reassuring smile. ‘I just wasn’t expecting them to want to be here.’ 

Lydia snorted. ‘Like they were going to stay in the same pack as Jackson once you and Stiles were gone.’ 

Stiles nearly choked on her soda. ‘Wait, what? Jackson’s joined the pack?’ 

Derek looked nearly as shocked as she was, but he let it pass without comment, pushing to his feet to buzz Erica and Boyd in. 

‘Hey.’ She poked his knee, almost whacking him with her new bracelet, which had pretty good heft for something so delicate. ‘You better call again and get them to send over even more food. I’ve seen how much Erica eats.’ 

Derek reached down and ran his fingers through her hair, a soft smile on his face. ‘I doubled up on your duck when I put the order in. No-one is going to steal your duck, don’t worry.’

Stiles leaned into his touch and beamed up at him. ‘You continue to be amazing.’ 

Derek’s ears started to turn pink and he hurried off to let Erica and Boyd in. 

When she turned back to the others, they were all staring at her. All except for Ms Martin, who had stolen Lydia’s abandoned fried rice while she wasn’t looking, and was busy hunting through it for prawns. 

‘What?’ Stiles said.

Lydia reached out and grabbed hold of Stiles’ wrist. ‘This is new, isn’t it?’ She lifted Stiles’ arm up and turned it so she could follow the design. ‘I’d remember if I’d seen this before.’ 

‘Yeah, it is.’ She pulled her arm from Lydia’s grip and ran her thumb gently across the face of the bracelet. 

‘Where did you get it?’ 

Stiles glanced up at where Derek was standing next to the buzzer, pretending not to listen to everything being said, and smiled. ‘Derek gave it to me.’ 

‘My brother gave that to you?’ Cora asked, leaning in and staring at it, surprise written all over her face. ‘I had no idea he had taste that good.’ 

Stiles laughed, grinning at Derek when he shot Cora a disgruntled look.

Ms Martin looked up from her food. ‘It is gorgeous,’ she agreed. 

‘I know,’ Stiles said, pleased for Derek that everyone was admiring it. ‘I love it.’ 

‘Something tells me there’s another conversation we need to be having soon,’ dad said dryly.

Stiles looked pointedly between dad and Ms Martin. ‘Only the one?’ 

Dad blushed bright red. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Fortunately for his blood pressure, Ms Martin had finally snagged the elusive prawn she’d been chasing and had closed her eyes to savour it.

‘Uh-huh,’ Stiles said. ‘Whatever you say, dad.’

Stiles caught Lydia’s eye and they both laughed. 

When the elevator opened, Erica and Boyd stepped out. Like Cora, they both bared their necks to Derek. This time, though, Derek didn’t look so disconcerted by it. Instead he stepped in and scented them both. 

The second Stiles noticed the bag of food Erica was holding, she jumped up. ‘Did you mug the delivery guy, Erica? You better not have swiped my duck.’ 

Erica laughed. ‘Relax, Stiles. It’s all here. Although I’m going to be taking possession of that ginger chicken with extreme prejudice. Boyd has dibs on the chow mein.’ 

‘Didn’t you get enough food at the barbeque?’ 

‘There’s always room for Chinese,’ Erica said, handing the bag over to Derek. 

‘Valid point,’ Stiles conceded, re-taking her seat only after making grabby hands at Derek until he passed over her food. There was no way she was giving Cora a chance to get her new carton of duck. 

Dad and Cora both shuffled sideways, making room for Erica and Boyd to sit down between them. 

Once everyone seemed happy, Derek sat back down next to Stiles, closer than before. 

‘What did we miss?’ Boyd asked, handing Erica some chopsticks.

‘Well, apparently Derek’s the alpha now and he swears he didn’t kill anyone for it.’ Cora sounded more disappointed about that then she should. ‘Stiles has a weird duck fetish and I’m fairly sure Stiles and Derek are dating.’ 

‘Oh, nothing important then,’ said Erica, between bites of her ginger chicken.

‘Stiles has always had a duck fetish,’ Derek pointed out. ‘That’s not news.’ 

Erica looked up. ‘Wait. Was Cora being serious?’

‘I do take my duck very seriously,’ Stiles said. ‘You know this. Although personally I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a fetish. I don’t want to fuck the duck, just eat it.’

‘Language,’ dad and Ms Martin said at the same time.

‘Holy man-eating cats!’ Erica said, dropping her carton and launching herself at Derek. ‘Show me your eyes? Can I join your pack? Why am I the last to know? Don’t you _love me_ , Alpha?’

At the word ‘alpha’ Derek’s eyes widened, but he caught Erica and hugged her back. 

Stiles covered her mouth with both hands to keep in the happy squeak. She hadn’t said so to Derek, but she’d been a little worried about how the betas would react, but this was definitely turning out to be best case scenario. Cora and Boyd were both looking a bit like they wanted to get in on the cuddling too, although they weren’t making any moves to join in yet.

She wondered if she should maybe invite the parents and Lydia on a tour of the apartment while Derek and the betas bonded; give them a little space so they could do werewolfy things in peace. 

Before she could act on that thought, Derek froze, Erica still in his arms. He was staring fixedly at something on the other side of the room, his expression haunted. Stiles twisted to see what it was, but there was just the window, black with the night, reflecting the scene playing out. Derek’s eyes were shining bright red, though, so maybe he could see something Stiles couldn’t.

Erica must have felt Derek tense because she sat back, looking worried. ‘Derek?’ 

‘I just… back in a minute.’ Derek extricated himself from Erica’s hug, leaving her looking bemused and concerned, and hurried across the room without looking at anyone. He pushed open the door next to his bedroom and went inside, closing the door again behind him. 

‘Was it something I said?’ Erica asked. 

Scrambling to her feet, Stiles shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. I think he’s just freaking out. He’s had a big day. I’m just gonna -’ she jabbed her thumb at the door Derek had gone through, ‘- check he’s okay.’ 

‘Maybe he needs some time to himself?’ dad suggested. 

‘Maybe. I’ll leave if he tells me to,’ Stiles promised. 

She pushed open the door and cautiously stepped inside. Derek hadn’t turned the lights on, and unlike every other room there was stuff in this one. It looked like he’d already pulled all his kite-making stuff out of storage, and had it delivered so he could start setting up his workshop.

Derek was standing in front of the windows, hands braced on the workbench in front of him, and he was staring at his faint reflection and the way his eyes kept flaring red.

 _Oh,_ she thought. Stiles carefully made her way through the machinery and boxes stacked up everywhere, grateful for the ambient light coming in from outside. 

She wrapped her arms around his waist and rubbed her cheek against his broad back, before pressing in a kiss to his shoulder. When she looked at the window again, Derek was watching her and she gave him a small smile. 

‘I really love you,’ she said. It was a relief to finally say it.

Derek took in a shuddery breath, and placed one of his hands over hers. 

‘I loved you when you were eleven and I was an annoying five year old, and you had scraped knees and buck teeth. And I love you now, with your fangs and your alpha muscles, and your ability to leave fur on the couch.’ 

Derek closed his eyes, his hand tightening on hers, fingers wrapping around the bracelet he’d given her. 

‘Because when you were nine and I was three, instead of being annoyed, you acted like that stupid macaroni art was the best present you ever got, and you still love that terrible mug I made you when I was ten. You made me a kite in the shape of Barney the Dinosaur when I was seven and everyone else was making fun of me -’

‘That was the first kite I made that wasn’t out of a kit,’ Derek murmured. 

‘- I didn’t know that,’ she admitted. ‘But I do know that when I was uncomfortable in that dress today, you knew, and gave me another option. I’ve skipped over a few, but that’s around reason ten million that I love you, if we’re counting.’ 

Derek turned, and gently lifted her up and sat her on the bench, so that her back was to the window. His face was wet, and he looked a lot like he had at eleven; like the world was a bit much, and he just wanted a hug from his mom.

She pulled the sleeve of his henley down over her hand and wiped away the tears. ‘I love you for your heart, Derek. It’s the best one I know.’

‘I love you too,’ Derek choked out. ‘So fucking much. You don’t even know.’ 

Stiles wasn’t very good at being quiet, but maybe it was just because her heart had never been full before. Because now, she had no words. She tugged Derek close and kissed his salt-streaked lips, and loved him so much she felt naked with it. Like she was laid bare before him with only the night sky as a witness, all her most intimate secrets known and accepted for what they were.

‘I just want to make you happy,’ Derek said, confessing it softly, as though it were a terrible secret. ‘Even back when you were five and I was eleven.’ 

And maybe it was a terrible secret after all, because Stiles hadn’t known it could hurt to be loved, but her chest ached now. She kissed him again, a little careless about it, as though she could take for granted that her kisses were welcome.

Derek responded in kind, and for a while she didn’t really think at all, just let herself feel, as they traded long, twisting kisses back and forth, until at last the intensity petered out, and they ended up hugging each other, warm and happy.

‘You ready to go back out?’ she asked, and Derek nodded.

He helped her jump down off the bench, and held her hand as he led them past all the machinery and back towards the door. 

‘You’ll have to show me around properly later,’ she said, peering through the darkness at the dim shapes surrounding them. ‘I want to see it all in the daylight.’ 

‘Tomorrow,’ Derek said, like a promise, as though they’d have a lot of tomorrows.

When Derek pulled open the door, Erica was pacing back and forth. Cora and Boyd were both standing together, watching Erica and looking worried. 

When she realised that Derek and Stiles were back in the room, Erica paused mid-pace and turned to look at Derek, biting her lip. ‘I’m sorry.’ 

Derek shook his head. ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ he assured her and pulled her into another hug. ‘I’m still getting my head around being an alpha, and I don’t really know what I’m doing yet,’ he said. ‘I’m not a very good bet.’

‘I don’t care,’ Erica said, hugging him back just as hard. ‘I’m still learning how to werewolf. I’d rather learn with you.’

‘We both would,’ Boyd interjected. ‘Just in case that wasn’t clear.’

Derek looked pretty choked up, but he extended his arm and pulled Boyd in to join the hug. ‘Cora, get in here,’ he said. 

Cora burrowed into the hug and the four of them stayed like that for a few minutes. Stiles didn’t try to join in, happy to see Derek’s pack come together so easily. 

Finally, Erica let go of Derek, but not before she pressed a smacking kiss to his cheek. She started to walk back to where dad and Ms Martin were, but then she darted forward and kissed Stiles’ cheek too, and said, ‘You know, this isn’t where I thought our day was going when I walked into your room this morning. Is this what usually happens when you wear a dress? The entire world turns on its head?’ 

‘I don’t think I can claim the credit for this one. It was all Derek,’ Stiles said. ‘Much as I’d like to be able to veto all future dress-wearing.’

Erica laughed. 

‘Everything alright now?’ dad asked, looking from Derek to Stiles

It made Stiles wonder just how dishevelled they both looked, but she nodded. ‘Everything’s good.’ 

‘Sheriff,’ Derek said. ‘What do I need to do to register a new pack?’

‘You need one more beta for a start,’ dad said. ‘At least three betas and an alpha is the minimum for a new pack.’

‘Hey,’ Cora said, ‘What am I? The invisible woman?’

‘You’re not eighteen, kiddo,’ dad said, as gently as he could. ‘But assuming Talia is still feeling guilty and says yes to Cora transferring, I guess I’ll see you at the Sheriff’s office tomorrow, Derek. We can get the ball rolling.’

‘Oh, God,’ Derek said. ‘I have to tell mom. Before she hears about it from anyone else.’

‘Rather you than me,’ Cora said, going back to her spot on the blanket and lounging back against Lydia, looking like she was settling in to stay for a while. 

‘Actually, Derek,’ Natalie said, ‘I don’t think you need to worry too much about what Talia will say. When we talked about the cars, she seemed far more concerned that she’d pushed you away for good. You’re her son before you’re her beta. She’ll support you, once she understands what you need.’

Derek nodded but Stiles could see that he was still apprehensive about the whole thing. She slid her hand into his and gave it a squeeze. ‘Hey,’ she said. ‘Do you want to go now and get it over and done with? I’ll come with you, if you want.’ 

The tension that had been winding Derek tighter and tighter ramped up another notch and he gripped her hand, like she was a tether keeping him grounded. ‘Yeah. Let’s do that.’ 

‘Then let’s go.’ Stiles turned to the others. ‘Are you going to hang out here until we get back?’ 

‘Definitely,’ Cora said, and Lydia nodded too. 

Stiles doubted if Cora was going to go back to the house that night. The only question was if she was going to stay with Lydia or Derek. The lack of furniture other than Derek’s own bed would probably be a deciding factor. Whatever the outcome, though, Stiles was almost positive that by the time they returned, Cora would have picked out which room in Derek’s apartment was going to be hers. Which led Stiles to wonder if Cora would ever really be returning to the Hale house if Derek was now her alpha. 

There were going to be a lot of things to sort out. 

‘We’d like to stay too, if that’s okay with Derek,’ Boyd said. 

Derek nodded. ‘If we’re going to be pack, this place is an much yours as it is mine, now.’

‘I think we’re going to head off, too.’ Dad stood and offered his hand to Ms Martin, who took it and pulled herself up. ‘We can walk out with you.’ 

The group milled around for a few minutes, packing up the the remaining cartons of takeout and picking up the trash. Ms Martin went over to have a few words with Lydia, and Derek and Stiles both slipped on their shoes while the lift clunked its way up to the first floor. Stiles even remembered to retrieve Derek’s keys from her shoe before impaling her toes on them.

‘Hey,’ Derek said, just before he pulled the cage door open. ‘You can explore anywhere here, but don’t go in that room.’ He pointed at the door leading to his studio. ‘It has a bunch of my work stuff in there, and not everything is safe right now.’ 

They all nodded. ‘Got it, boss,’ Erica said.

Cora smiled at him. ‘Good luck.’ 

Once outside, Derek strode off to the Camaro and Ms Martin made her way over to the cruiser. 

There was a slight chill to the air and Stiles was glad that she was still wearing Derek’s henley. She was probably going to end up stealing this one. 

‘Don’t think you’re getting out of talking about this later,’ dad said, gesturing towards where Derek was waiting by the car. 

‘Ditto,’ Stiles said, jutting her head in the direction of Ms Martin. 

‘Stiles,’ dad said, in a reproving tone, but it was spoiled by the way he checked over his shoulder to see if Ms Martin had noticed anything. 

‘It’s cool,’ she assured him. ‘Doesn’t mean we’re not going to talk about it though.’

A resigned look settled on his face as he pulled Stiles in for a hug. ‘Good luck at Talia’s. Call me if you need me.’ 

‘Will do.’ When they stepped back, Stiles punched him in the arm. ‘Go get her, dad.’

‘You’re a menace,’ he said, but walked over to the cruiser with a definite spring to his step, and got in the passenger side, evidently still erring on the side of caution. 

Stiles waved at Ms Martin, who waved back before driving off. Then she walked over to join Derek, where he was leaning against the hood of the Camaro. 

‘What’s with the face?’ he asked. 

‘Just having disturbing visions of my dad and Ms Martin going all Giles and Joyce in his cruiser.’ 

‘You couldn’t have kept that to yourself?’ 

‘I’m a sharer.’ Instead of settling next to Derek, she walked up and knocked his knee with hers until he gave her enough space for her to stand between his legs. ‘What’s with your face?’

His hands settled on her hips and he leaned forward, giving her a quick kiss before pressing their foreheads together. ‘You know what this face is for.’

‘I do,’ she agreed. She linked her hands together at the nape of Derek’s neck and started to swipe her thumbs back and forth, soothing out the tension there. ‘But remember both my dad and Ms Martin think Talia is past being an unreasonable alpha and has moved on to being a concerned mom.’ 

‘I know.’

‘We’re going to be fine,’ she told him. ‘You and I, we’re going to go and deal with this together and we’ll be fine. More than fine. Brilliant, even. We’re going to be a negotiating dream team, and your mom is going to be blown away by your maturity, self-confidence, and extremely reasonable requests.’

‘It’s funny,’ Derek said. ‘When you talk like that, I just about believe you.’

‘Need a bit more convincing, huh?’

Derek nodded, giving her a hopeful look, so she took pity on him and kissed him in a way she was very glad her dad wasn’t around to see. Stiles’ knees started to go wobbly halfway through, and she was glad he was holding her so tightly. She hadn’t know that was a real thing that happened.

‘Convinced yet?’ Stiles asked breathlessly.

‘A-hmm,’ Derek said, and kissed her one more time. ‘Actually,’ Derek said, smiling at her. ‘We’re going to be fine. Great. Brilliant, even. I don’t know what you were worried about.’

‘It’s a mystery for the ages,’ she agreed. She pulled out the keys and waggled them at him. ‘These might help.’ 

They got into the Camaro and headed out. Stiles flipped the radio on, searching for some inspirational music to keep them both in good spirits for the drive. To her delight, ‘Eye of the Tiger’ was playing on the oldies station. ‘Yes.’ She fist-pumped. ‘It’s your song, Derek!’

The glance he spared her was judging. ‘Really.’

There wasn’t room to do a decent air guitar, but Stiles gave it her best shot. ‘Be the tiger, Derek. You can do it. I have faith in you!’

‘You’re not funny,’ Derek said, but his mouth was twitching. He thought she was hilarious, Stiles could tell. 

She nudged the volume up just a little higher, and sang along with the chorus, Derek only holding out a few moments before joining in. 

Above them, the moon had finally risen, just beginning its new journey across the sky. The silvery light of it shone down on them, bright and familiar, guiding them on their way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’re interested, the bracelet Derek gives Stiles looks something like [this](http://susandods.com/blog/uploaded_images/ChineseSilverEnamelCoralDragonBracelet_105BB/00051.jpg).

**Author's Note:**

> We're on Tumblr: [ionaonie](http://ionaonie.tumblr.com/), and [cupidsbower](http://cupidsbower.tumblr.com/).


End file.
